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OSMANIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARYCall No. /4-9- 3 Accession No. J>Ol69Author

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MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

OF INDIA

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MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

OF INDIA

by

KSHITIMOHAN SEN

With, a Foreword by

EABINDRANATH TAGOEE

Authorized Translation

from the, Bengali

by

MANOMOHAN GHOSH

LFZAC & CO

46 GREAT RUSSELL STREET

LONDON

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To

ALL THOSE

Who have felt the Supreme Spirit.

in rare moments of self-realization

and

Who seek life's fulfilment in a love

that transcends limitations of creeds,

customs and of race,

I humbly dedicate this effort of mine.

K. s.

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Listen, () brother man,The Truth of Man is the highest of truths,

There is no other truth above it.

Chandidas

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FOREWORD

Text books of Indian History, which we

read, deal mostly with its external aspect.

And in such a history foreigners play the most

important part. They have fought battles,

conquered the country and ruled it. We have

accepted this pressure from the outside, thoughat. times efforts were made to shake it off and

have met with occasional success. But on the

whole this aspect of India's history reveals to

our eyes, in its successive chapters, the fail-

ures of her people.But it will have to be admitted that the

Indian sadhana does not identify itself with

politics. True it is that great kings and

:mperors arose in our country; but their

greatness has been quite their own. This sort

of greatness owes nothing to the people whoneither crea-te it or participate in it with any

pleasure. It developed along with one's indi-

vidual power and dwindled with the same.

But India has a sadhana of her own and

it belongs to her innermost heart. Through-out all her political vicissitudes its stream has

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ii FOREWORD

flowed on. A wonderful feature of this has

been that it does not glide along any embank-

ment of scriptural sanctions, and the influence

of scholasticism on it, if any, is very small.

In fact, this sddhana has mostly been unscrip-

tural and not controlled by social laws of anykind. Its spring is within the innermost

heart of the people whence it has gushedforth in its spontaneity and broken throughthe barriers of rules, prescriptive as well as

proscriptive.

Most of the persons from whose heart this

spring has come forth belong to the masses and

whatever they have realised and expressedwas 'not by means of intellect or much learn-

ing of the sacred lore' (na medhayd na bahun"

srutena).

If we could visualise the historical deve-

lopment of this sddhana Vve should discover

where the living history of India exists. Thenwe might know after what ideal India has

moved on from one period of her history to

another, and how far she has realised that

ideal. The long course, which the stream of

India's cherished ideal has followed throughthe ages, has been traced in these lectures in all

its major and minor branches by my esteemed

colleague and friend, Professor Kshitimohan

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FOREWORD iii

Sen. We have seen how deeply true is this

stream and how essentially it is India's

own. The natural genius for sddhand which

is latent in the Indian people has been

discovered in these lectures by Prof. Sen.

The line of development, which iis expres-sion has taken amidst different internal

and external obstacles, has been sketched in

this work. We still expect to see at some

future date a detailed history of its progressivemovement. Unless we have this history, the

true picture of India will remain only partial-

ly known to her children and such a partial

knowledge might be very erroneous.

Santinikctar\,

27th Dumber, 1929.RABINDRANATH TACORE

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PREFACE

That there may come at any time an

invitation from any learned society for deli-

vering a lecture on the history of spiritual

quests of the Mediaeval India never occurred

to me before. It is nearly thirty-five years ago

that in my young days I came to know in

Benares sddhus and santas of various sects.

It was a matter of happy accident thait I was

born in Benares which was a favourite haunt

of them all. Possibly due to this fact I could

get some opportunities in this field. So

charmingly deep and liberal were the sddhand

and the sayings of those old sddhus, that I

felt an. intoxicating attraction for them all even

at a very tender age. During my student life

too I passed most of my time in studying these

sayings. Luckily enough I secured then, the

favour of some good guides in this field, the like

of whom it is very hard to meet now-a-days.

Persons of this type are growing less in

number every day. It was only the other day

that Baba Mohan-das the old sadhu of

Lakhan-ka village in Bhawnagar (Kathiawar)

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yi PREFACE

passed away in Santa Cruz, Bombay. He had

more than three thousand bhajans in his

memory. In the first part of the selection from

the sayings of Kabir edited by me I have

referred to some such sadhus. Many, how-

ever, were the able sddhakas who left this

world without attaining any celebrity amongscholars.

There are collections of many sayings of

sddhakas stored up in manuscripts preserved

by members of different sects and their maths

in different parts of India. In many of the

maths the custodians of these treasures

preserve them with the zeal of the yaksa of

the Indian folk-lore and no one can see themeven at the cost of his life. The same is the

condition in the libraries of many ruling chiefs

of Rajputana. It is not without a bitter ex-

perience that one is inclined to make a com-

plaint of this kind against these institutions.

Sddhakas of the Indian Mediaeval agewere mostly from the lower strata of the

society, but sects which their teachings gaverise to, have tried afterwards in various waysto pass them as men of the higher castes.

Thus many sayings of such sddhakas hadeither to be left out or distorted.

An enquiry into the family history of

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P R E F A C K vii

Kabir and Dadu will make this process veryclear. The fact that Kabir was the son of a

Mahomedan weaver has been sought to be

obliterated by many absurd stories. But his-

torical criticism has mercilessly exposed such

frauds. It cannot now be doubted that Kabir

was born in a Jola family. And as for his ini-

tiation it was not at all a singular affair, for

Kamananda had many such disciples : arid

moreover many sddhakas, even after Rama-nanda departed from this life, were influenced

by his doctrines and hence declared them-

selves to be disciples of the master. We have

referred to these things in the body of this

work. Some among the followers of Dadu

try to smother the truth about his birth by say-

ing that he was the son of a Nagar Brahman.

There are however some who say that Dadu,

being the Niranfan (God) himself, had no birth

in the wordly sense. But truth cannot be

suppressed. The late Pandit Sudhakar

Dvivedl was of opinion that Dadu was born in

a family of leather-workers who manufactur-

ed mote or leathern water-bags for drawing

water from wells. This however is a partial

truth. It has now been discovered that Dadu

was born in the family of cotton-carders. The

sources of our information have been the

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viii PREFACE

Jivanparchayi by Jan-gopal, the PantJia-

prakhyd by Dasji and the writings of Teja-

nand. In the absence of support from anyother scholar I would have hesitated to make

any statement on this point. But Rai Saheb

Chandrika Prasad Tripathi who has equal

regard for Dadu's doctrine and historical truth,

has very clearly written about this. The

keepers of those maths, which furnished himwith documents in the shape of old manus-

cripts, have now begun to burn in their angerthose old and rare works.

Authentic information in this line can

however be had from those sddhus who have

turned to the spiritual life due to an inherent

love for it and have not allowed themselves to

be held by the bondage of sects.

The sectarian sddhus do not care to recog-

nize these deeply spiritual souls who are out-

side any sect. But any one who is willing to

have really genuine and old things and say-

jngs full of deep meaning, will have to seek

their help.

It should be mentioned here that in the

sectarian collections we very often miss the

really deep and liberal sayings of Mediaeval

sddhakas, which are available only from the

sddhus who do not belong to any sect.

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PREFACE ix

With the change of time and circumstanc-

es the number of such sddhus is gradually,

growing less and less. They are not like

the modern sddhus who but for some noble

exceptions are as good as professionals, or pro-

pagandists. Hence in spite of various kinds of

'Sannyasis' that the modern spirit is calling in-

to existence, the successions of the old-type

sddhus are daily coming to an end. It mayhappen that after a time they will exist only in

people's memory and even that much may not

remain; for people in general are so very

ignorant of them.

But, for writing a true history of the reli-

gious and spiritual efforts of Mediaeval India

we have no materials other ihan those which

have been enshrined in the sayings and doc-

trines the sddhus of the period and historical

anecdotes about them.

The most important thing about India has

been her religious and spiritual life. That she

has made an effort to bring about a synthesis

in the midst of diversities of various kinds has

been the most prominent aspect of her history.

From period to period this effort has been con-

tinued through successive generations of her

great sdhdakas, and has concerned itself with

her one problem. Political activities have never

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x P R E F A C K

occupied a very important position in Indian

history. Hence to understand the secret Soul

of India we cannot do without collecting and

studying the sayings and doctrines of various

sddlius that have been preserved by their

followers or the keepers of many sectarian

matlis.

Had this been the situation in any progres-sive country of the West we might have seen

that a number of young men would under-

go great hardship in order to have access to*

these sources, and various institutions of the

land would be reverently furthering researches

in this line. But to expect similar activities

in the present condition of our country would

be hoping against hope.From my coming to Santmiketan in 1908

I have been continually spending my holidays,

vacations and other leisure hours in the studyand investigation of the materials mentioned

above. For a long time I kept everything to<

myself. But afterwards Rabindranath Tagorechanced to know of my activities and urgedme again and again to publish the result of

my studies.

But I felt a shyness over the proposal and

thought that no publisher would be forthcom-

ing to undertake the risk of publishing what to

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P R E F A C E i

the best of my knowledge had yet no market.

Authorities of the Indian Press, Allahabadhowever came forward to undertake publica-

tion, and as a result of the Poet's pressure I

had to publish four small volumes, which in-

cluded only a selection from the most import-ant of Kablr's sayings, while for an adequate

representation of this sddhakas greatness no<

less than ten such volumes were necessary. Wehave come to know as many as two hundredsuch sddhakas of Mediaeval India, whose^

sayings, it may be hoped, will render assistance

to humanity in its march to spiritual as well as

moral and social progress. This field is

indeed vast, but the workers are few and those

who have a genuine interest in such things are

fewer still.

During rny studies and investigation of

the subject I have received great encourage-ment and assistance from Tagore. At the out-

set of this Preface I have mentioned that, it

never occurred to me that these studies would

sver find favour in learned circles. I beganwork by utilising my leisure hours only. But

Tagore very generously gave recognition to the

subject in his Visvabharati and thus enabled

me to devote my whole time to it. I am sorryto say (hat young men who are to build up our*

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xii P R E F A C E

future are still almost absent from the field.

The little interest which some of them evince

in this line can at best be called a condescen-

sion to the subject for the sake of writing out a

/thesis meant for some higher degree. But wecan scarcely hope to obtain a high quality of

work from such people.

The late Sir Ashutosh Mookerji who as a

great scholar and educator, had for his life's

supreme mission the building up of a true

University once expressed a desire to have a

long talk with me on this subject. And I did

actually meet him and he discussed in various

ways whether any scheme for the furtherance

-of such studies could be made. He had in his

mind plans for doing many things but his verysad and untimely death put a stop to every-

thing.

The invitation which came to me last yearfrom the University of Calcutta to deliver the

Adhar Mookerjee Lectures for the year 1929

was a surprise for me. I never expected, as

I have said before, that any learned society

would pay attention to the ideas and ideals of

those illiterate sddhakas. I do not know whowas instrumental in causing such a thing to

-'happen. Hence my cordial thanks go to the

^entire executive authority of the University

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PREFACE xiii

of Calcutta. My subject is vast and it is diffi-

cult to do justice to it in a lecture or two. Butwe may hope that before our own power of

work will gradually become less and less tho

young promising students of our country will

gradually take the responsibility of this work

upon their own shoulders.

Those who assume this responsibility will

not go unrewarded. Any one taking to this

line will see that there cannot be any experi-ment in the field of religious and spiritualendeavours that has not been carried out byone or other of the sadhakas of the MediaevalIndia. Being quite innocent of any scriptural

knowledge these sadhakas never trod on the

beaten track; and their genius and vision were,

ever free. Sects conforming to some kind of

scriptures or other blindly followed the tradi-

tion while each one of these sadhakas used his

yision to find out a new way of his own. Fol-

lowing these ways we shall meet with instances

of boldness which have been evinced in

handling the good and the evil in the

human mind. Attempts from various sides

>to satisfy the spiritual hankering will also

be seen. It is a pity that such a plenty of

materials for discussing human culture has

toeen lying unexplored. We remember in

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xiv PREFACE

this connexion the Bengali bhakta Ram-prasadwho said :

"O mind, you do not know agriculture.Without any cultivation lies this field of

human existence which properly tilled mighthave led to the production of a goldenharvest."

We who are fettered by our tradition and

obsessed by our written literature do not care

to see what vast wealth is passing away before

our very eyes. Even now^ if we make great

efforts we may be able to save a small portionof it. Our information would cover barely;

one-sixteenth of whatever once existed. The

remaining portion has already perished and

the extant portion will possibly vanish rapid-

ly. One studying them will see how the say-

ings of these unlettered sddhakas are often

more deep and sublime than written scrip-

tures. The authors are mostly illiterate and

their sddhana includes developing love amongthe different schools of sddhana and synthesis

of them all. This synthesis in spite of all its

external difficulties is the true ideal of Indian

sddhana.

The opportunity which I have been allow-

ed has been utilised in barely giving a glimpseof that sddhana. It has been merely an out-

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PREFACE xv

line. It is my desire that on some future

occasion I shall try to give a fuller history of

the age in which such a sddhand prevailed.

By a mere skeleton of it we cannot give anyadequate idea. Without blood and flesh

upon it, its living forms become difficult to

comprehend. Some account of the achieve-

ments of the sddhakas and their sayings are

needed for visualizing a correct picture of that

age.

Many workers are needed for this vast

field of researches, and hence I invite the

young scholars of our country to this work.

My heartful thanks go to the authorities of the

.University who gave me this opportunity of

.saying these few words and I am also to

remember here again the great educator, late

Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee.

My thanks are also to my young friend

Mr Manomohan Ghosh who very kindly help-

ed me in the correction of proofs and other

matters. To all others who were of help to mein one way or other I express my gratefulness.

Last but not the least I am to acknowledge

my deep debt of gratitude to Rabindranath

Tagore who possesses a great reverence for

the sddhakas of Mediaeval India as well as a

rare power of appreciation and enjoyment of

Page 28: Medieval Mysticism

xvi PREFACE

their deep and sublime sayings. The enthu-

siasm and reverence which Tagore cherishes

for them have been of great help to me while

working on these sayings. I am glad that his

blessings in the shape of a Foreword from his-

pen have adorned these pages.

Santiniketan, __ ~T la KSHITIMOHAN SENJanuary, 1930.

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PREFACE TO THE TRANSLATION

In March 1929 I delivered The AdharLectures in the Calcutta University. In the limited spaceof those Lectures I had to review the broad outlines of the

history of the spiritual quest of medieval India, to whichfuB justice could only be done in a more elaborately treat-

ed work. However, as I have studied facts from a newangle of vision, even this short sketch may have somevalue for the student of Indian thought and culture. Thisis my excuse for placing before public the English version

of these Lectures, delivered originally in Bengali.

The English title of this work, Medieval Mysticism of

India, will probably require some explanation, for the

word 'medieval* naturally calls up to our mind a host of

ideas associated with the European Middle Ages and one

may well surmise some similarity between the Christian

mysticism of those ages and the mysticism of Medieval

India. But nothing can be further from the fact.

The chief characteristic of the typical Indian mystics

was that they did not submit to the control of any church

(i.e. sectarian organization) or scriptures (sdstras). This

freedom in the matter of spiritual culture which was well-

nigh non-existent in medieval Europe gave Indian mystic

experiences a richness and variety which we shall look for

in vain elsewhere.

Rich though it was from its early (Upanisadic) period,

Indian mysticism became doubly so when Islam came to

be a power in India. Impact of this new and powerfulfaith released the latent forces of India's religious life; andit was by her mystics that a synthesis was sought to be

brought about between the conflicting elements of the two.

Those who achieved and guided this synthesis were

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sviii P R E V A C E T THE T R A N S L A T I N

persons who, due to their birth in the so-callled lower

classes of society, were free from the bondage of scriptures

or of any institutional religion. Another very important

fact about them was that they had no ascetic aversion to

life and its responsibilities and, in this respect too, they

stand in sharp contrast to the Christian mystics of Europe.

These facts explain the vigorous and marvellous develop-

ment of mysticism in medieval India.

My thanks are due to the Calcutta University for

giving me permission to publish these Lectures in an

English translation. And for actually translating them I

am to thank very warmly my young friend Mr. ManomohanGhosh who made every effort to make this translation a

readable one. To my esteemed friend Mr. C. F. Andrews

too I am to express my sincere thanks for having very

kindly gone through the entire translation in manuscript.

One aspect of the translation should be mentioned

here. A number of Indian terms which, I think, have no

exact English equivalents, have been given in transliteration

and these have been defined in alphabetical order in

the beginning of the book. As regards the transliteration

of Indian words I have to some extent deviated from the

accepted standard. This modification has been made for

the convenience of the general reader.

In the Appendices I have reprinted four of my ownarticles published in the Visvabharati Quarterly. They, it

is hoped, will to some extent supplement the reader's

knowledge of India's Medieval mysticism presented in the

Lectures in broad outlines.

KSHITIMOHAN SENSantiniketan,

50th December 1935.

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CONTENTS

PAGE

Foreword . ., ... ... ... i

Preface . . ... ... ... v

Preface to the Translation ... ... ... xvii

Corrections ... ... ... ... xxiv

Indian Terms ... ... ... ... xxv

Transliterations ... ... ... ... xxxi

LECTTRK 1.

ORTHODOX THINKERS ...

Beginning of Indian culture Meeting of

Dravidian, pre-Dravidian and Aryan cultures

Foreign tribes absorbed in the Indian population

Upanisadic mysticism Tragedy of Indian

Medieval times Impact of Islam, and India's

reawakening Reaction to the Vedic ritualism

Reaction to the worship of symbols Islam's

unity and consequent power Islam's contra-

dictory ideas and creeds India takes stock of

her ancient ideas and ideals Medieval Mysti-

cism born Ramananda and Medieval India

Mussulman saints The problem of depressed

classes Saints and orthodox theologians of

Islam Dataganj Bakhsh The Kashfal Mahjub

Method of the Sufi sddhand ; devotion to

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CONTENTS

guru, fand and hdl Chishtiyya Sufis come

Muinuddin Chishti Husaini Brahmans

Qutbuddin Kaki Fariduddin Shakarganj

Sabir Chishti Nizamuddin Aulia Salim

Chishti Chishtis of Sindh The Suhrawardi

sect Surkhposh The Kadiri sect Sufism in

Bengal and Bihar Sufism charged with

heterodoxy The need of liberal Islam for

India Sufis of Sindh Mubarak Nagorl His

sons, Faizi and Abul Fazl Akbar the Great

Aziz Kuka Abdul Rahim Khan Khanan

Dara Shikoh Azam Shah Four Sufi friends

of Sindh Shah Karim Shah Inayat Amity

between sects Shah Latif Bedil and Bekash

Fattu and Mihr Shams-i-Tabriz ImamShah The Shahdulla sect Taj, a Mahomadan

poetess in Hindi The Khoja sect Malik

Muhammad Jayasi Nur Muhammad Hasan

Nizami Hindu influence on Islamic sects

Heterodox (beshard) sects The Azad sect

The Tantras influenced the Rasulshahi sect

Hindu and Mussulman superstitions mix

together Baiils and Zikirs Protest against

heterodoxy Fardizis of Bengal The Hindu

revival and reformation Vedic exegesis The

Shifting of Smritis The study of Vedanta

The Tantras and some teachers of the Tantras

The Bhagavata cult Worshippers of Siva

and Visnu Such Bhatyas of Southern India

A}vars Ramanujacharya The Madhva sect

Visnusvami Nimbarka Chaitanya Sahkardev

Vallabhacharya and the Vallabha sect The

Astachhap Sur-das Vrajavasi-das Charan-das

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CONTENTS

The Svami Narayani sect The Radha-vallabhi sect The Haridasi sect TukaramNamdev Ram-das Narsi Mehta Akha

Bhagat and Niskulanda Santa-ram, and

Madhavgar Brahmanand and Devanand

Tulsi-das Vernacular Ramdyans and Mahd-bhdrata : Krittivas and Kasiram-das Popular

religious festivals and similar institution

Kashmir Saivism Southern 3aivism Meikan-

dadev Sivavakya Bhadiragiriar P'attinattu-

pille Chronicles of Bhattfas The Bhaktamal.

LECTURE II.

LIBERAL THINKERS 68

The religion natural is the religion eternal

Sahaj or the Natural Nath and Yogi sects

Gopichand The Niranjan and other North

Indian sects Ramananda, his twelve desciples

Bhakta Sadan Namdev Anantanand

Agra-das and Kflha Nabha The Bhaktamal

Priya-das Lai-das The Khaki sect Ravi-

das some sayings of Ravi-das Sena Bhava-

nanj Dhanna Pipa Sukhananda Sursura-

nanda Kabir Kamal Suratgopal Dhararn-

Jas The story of the quarrel over Kabir's dead-

body Kabir's views and teachings Kabir's

songs Nanak The Granth Sahib of the Sikhs

Malik Muhammad Jayasi Kabir's sects

The Dharamdasi sect Dharam-das Dadu and

his disciples Rajjab's teachings : allround

zadhana, variety in sadhand, meeting of many

Page 34: Medieval Mysticism

ii CONTENTS

individual ideas, current made up of numerous

drops, the world is the Vedas, the creation is

the Koran The Uda Kabir sect of Gujarat

The Kabir 's sect of Kathiawar, Bhan Sahib

Ravi Sahib and other followers of Bhan

Influence of Kabir spreads Sects of Orissa

Sects of Bengal Neo-Sufism of India Bawri

Sahib and Yari Shah Kesav-das Bulla Sahib

Gulal Sahib Jag-jivan The Satnami sect

Dulam-das The Satnami Sadh sect Vir

Bhan The Ghasidasi Satnami sect Lalgir and

and the Alakhnami sect Bhikha Paltu Sahib

Daria Sahib, the follower of the Satnam in

Bihar Daria Sahib of__ JMjarwar Sadna Lai-

das, and tKe~LaTdasi sect Dharani-das Suthra

Shah and the Surthashahi sect Puran Bhagat

Garib-das, of Punjab Chhajju Bhagat Baba-

lal, Dara Shikoh Charan-das Ten precepts of

\ Charan-das Duties according to Charan-das

SaEajobai Dayabai Ksema Nani-bai and

Mata-bai Maluk-das Garib-das 5ib-narayan

Bulle Shah Ramsanehi Prannath, and the

Prannathi sect Tulsi Sahib Hathrasi Anant-

panthis Apa-panthis and Munna-panthis

Dedhraj The modern period in the religious

history of India begins.

NOTRS 162

APPENDIX 1

DADO'S BRAHMA SOCIETY 173

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CONTENTS xxiii

APPENDIX II

DADO'S PATH OF SERVICE 191

APPENDIX III

DADO & THE MYSTERY OF FORM 196

APPENDIX IV

BAOLS & THEIR CULT OF MAN 203

INDEX 234

Page 36: Medieval Mysticism

CORRECTIONS

Page 12 line 8 read Qutahuddin for Kutabuddin

,, 19 2 ,, Jaliangir for Jehangir

20 ,, 14 ,, Bihar for Beliar

,,28 ,, bashara/ for basharali

,, 20 ,, 24 ,, the princess Jahanara

28 ,, 2 ,, that of Karim for that; Karim

,, 71 ,,23 ,, from any one.

7(> ,, lo Anantanand for Auantudand

So ,, IS ,, Sahib for Shahib

,, 12o ,, 24 , 3 disciple's for discipPs

,, 19 ,, Chhapra for Chapra

Page 37: Medieval Mysticism

INDIAN TERMS

abhang A kind of metre used by saints of the Mahii-

ra?tra. The term is also used for a stanza composedin this metre.

ajapd The muttering of God's name with every breath

the kind of muttering which needs no rosary for

taking the count.

anga Lit. 'limb*. Chapter of an anthology of saintly

utterances.

drati Waving a cluster of lights before the image of

deity as a part of the evening worship. A song

composed for this occasion.

dsan Skt. dsana. A posture helpful in the practice of

meditation (see. Patanjali's Yoga-sutras, II. 46).

dtman Self. The Supreme Soul. The individual soul.

avatart

avatdra Skt. avatdra Lit. 'coming down.'

The coming of God (Visnu) among mortals in

human or in some animal form. Every time he

so comes he is called an avatar in that particular

form.

badnd A water-pot with the spout of a kettle. It is used

by Muhammadans.

behdg A musical mode, proper for the mid-night.

bhajan Lit. 'Service'. Hymn, or singing of hymns.

bhatya Devotee. One who has bha^ii (defined below).

bhatyi Devotion. Bhatyi has been defined as the

supreme attachment to the Divinity.

bharuka A water-vessel with a straight spout.

Brahman Lit. 'vastness'. The Infinite. The SupremeSoul. This term is often used without the definite

article.

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xxvi INDIAN TERMS

Brahman, Brdhmcm A member of the Hindu priestly

caste. Its anglicsed form 'Brahman* has been not

been used for avoiding confusion with the Brahman

defined above.

chamdr Leather-worker,

dargdh Tomb.

darwdjd Door, gate.

deha-tattva Mystical theory of physiology held by somedevotees of Medieval India. Their idea is that the

entire cosmos is in this human body and a man can

attain fulfilment of his life's object if he can only knowthis inner cosmos.

dewan Minister.

dhoti Cloth worn to cover the body from waist below.

dohd Name of a metre used in Hindi, Rajasthani etc.

A stanza composed in this metre.

/and A term used by the Sufis, see p. 13.

fatwa A religious edict

guru Spiritual guide.

gotra A group of families or clans.

homa Offering oblations to gods by pouring clarified

butter into the sacrificial fire. This is a Vedic

institution.

holi Spring festival. A musical mode specially suited

to such a festival.

japa Muttering.

jndna Knowledge. Knowledge of the philosophical

scriptures or philosophy.

Jold A Muhammadan weaver.

kamala-bedha The six mysical circles (safchal^ra) or

lotuses are supposed to exist in the human body which

a sddhaka has a pass through before he reaches the

final goal an^ attains beatitude. The piercing or

Page 39: Medieval Mysticism

INDIAN TERMS

passing through these lotuses placed one aboveanother is called the feamo/a-bedha.

\athaka A narrator of Hindu mythical stories with a

devotional content.

kathakatd The art of a kathaka who in course of narrating

mythical stones uses recitation, songs and suitable

gestures.

kaupin\ Loin-cloth .

kdzi Civil judge (among Mussulmans).

kirtan Singing the praise of God in chorus and often in

accompaniment of cymbals and some kind of earthen

drums (mddals). This is an institution associated

mainly with the Bengali Vaisnavas.

t^ripdn A sword. Such weapon as the Sikhs are bound

religiously to keep with them always.

kundalid A metre of Hindi.

mahanta, mahdnta An overseer of a shrine or math,

mantra A Vedic hymn or prayer. A formula (of prayer)

sacred to any deity.

math Skt. ma\ha means a boarding of celibate scholars.

The word math has thus come to mean an abode of

celibate novices of any religious sect or headquarters

of any religious sect where the guru and his associates

live.

mazdr A tomb, A grave.

malldr A musical mode suitable to the rainy season.

muchi A leather worker, shoe-maker, cobbler.

mote A large bag made of cow or buffalo hide for draw-

ing water from wells for the purpose of irrigation.

nauvat-khdnd A elevated place often above the main

entrance to a house or town, where music is played

with the beat of kettle-drums at regular intervals every

day.

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xxviii INDIAN TERMS

namdz A prayer to God by Mahomedans.

pad Skt. pada one-fourth part of a couplet. But it

means also a couplet, poem or song as well.

panth Lit. 'way' Sect. e.g. Kabir-panth, 'the sect of

Kabir.'

panthi One who has been in a Sect. e.g. Kabir-panthi,

*one who is in the sect of Kabir.'

Para-brahma The Supreme Soul. Almost the same

thing as the Brahman defined above. Th adjec-

tive 'para' simply intensifies the meaning. Para-

brahma thus becomes the Highest Entity.

paygambar He who has come with a message of

God i.e. a prophet (in Islamic theoilogy).

prema Love. Attachment and regard existing between

husband and wife. Love for God and all creation.

puru$a Man. Personal God. The soul (as in the

Samkhya-darsana).

rag Skt. rdga. A musical mode consisting of particular

sequence of notes. There are six principal rags,

and to each of these are attached six rdginis which

have some sort of affinity.

ros Skt. rasa. Lit. Sap, juice; taste, flavour, relish,

pleasure. It thus has come to mean also the delight

arising out of communion with God.

rauza A mousoleum.

re^hitd A metre of Hindi.

n'si A seer. One who has composed some hymn or

hymns of the Veda.

sabda or sabad 'Lit. word. It means particularly songs

of a religious teacher. Cf . vdnt.

sddhafya This Skt. word is derived from the root sddh

meaning 'to accomplish, to conquer*. Hence the

word means one who is accomplishing or is striving

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INDIAN TERMS xxix

for accomplishment of his spiritual ideal and which

striving involves the conquest of his senses and

other disturbing factors. In the narrow sense the

word is also used to indicate one who is out for

acquiring some occult powers.sddharvd The career of a sadhaJ^a (defined above).

sddhu It is almost a synonym for sadhafca (defined

above) but it has come also to mean any one wholives a pious life.

sahaj or sahaja Sty- sahaja Lit. Natural, simple. Anon-ascetic teaching which recognizes and admits the

natural demands of our life.

sarnktrtan Singing the praise of God, in chorus,

(sometimes) by people going in a procession in the

public street; see klrtan defined above.

sannyasl A mendicant. One who has renounced the

worild.

sdstra Ancient Hindu writings on the social and other

duties of man. It has two main sections; Vedas

and Smritis.

$atchakra see k^antalabedha.

satsai A collection of 700 stanzas.

svdmi Master. This term is used honorifically before

the name of ascetics or religious men of high order.

zizdd Prayer in a position in which one stoops so as to

touch the ground with one's forehead.

subedar Owner of an administrative division of a

province, (subd).

sal-gram Skt. sdlagrdma. A kind of stone considered

to be the symbol of Visnu and hence held very

sacred.

adfyta One who worships Sakti. the consort of a deity

who symbdlises his power. Worshipper of a goddess.

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INDIAN TERMSSee Satya (defined above).A stanza of 32 syllables.

sparsamani Philosophers* stone.

sraddha A ceremony performed in honour of the

departed man by his relations.

sunyatattoa The principle or the doctrine of the Void

or Non-existence. (See Kshitimohan Sen. 'The Con-

ception and Development of Sunvavada in Medieval

India* in The Visvabhctrati Quarterly, New Series,

Vol. I, Pt. I).

tilaka A mark or marks on the body (especially in the

forehead) with yellow clay, sandal paste etc. This

mark sometimes indicates the sect of a man.

tulsi Skt. tulasi. Sacred Basil plant.

vdrii Message, sayings of a saint, mostly versified.

vasanta Spring, a metre and musical mode specially

suited to spring.

vrata A religious act of devotion or austerity, vowedobservance.

yatrd A kind of popular dramatic opera which is per-

formed generally during the religious festivals held

in honour of Visnu-Krisna.

yoga Lit. joining, union. In connexion with rdligious

and spiritual matters it means an union of the

individual soul with the Supreme Soul by medi-

tation, concentration of the mind and contemplation

of the Supreme Spirit.

yogi One who strives for yoga (defined above).

zamindar A land-owner who has tenants.

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TRANSLITERATIONS

Sounds in Sanskrit except those mentioned below

have been transcribed according to the system

adopted by the J. R. A. S,

ri represents ^1 as well as K or - ri

cli , , ^

chh ,, E

r ,, f i.e. cerebral r

rh ,, ^ i.e. cerebral rh

The final a of Sanskrit, which is often lost in

the vernacular pronunciation has been omitted in the

transliteration. Both the Skt. and the vernacular

forms of some words will, however, be met with in

this work.

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Page 45: Medieval Mysticism

MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

OF INDIA

Page 46: Medieval Mysticism

I am the boat, and Thou art the sea, and also the

boatman.

If Thou dost not take me ashore, but let me sink,

I grudge not; why should I be foolish and afraid ?

Is the reaching; of the shore a greater prize than

losing myself in Thee f

Gaiigaram

Page 47: Medieval Mysticism

LECTUKE I

ORTHODOX THINKERS

When the Aryans came down to India,

the land was already enjoying a wealth of

different cultures, Dravidian and p r e -

Dravidian. These cultures had their

own paraphernalia rituals, laws and customs

etc. and were not wanting in anything of this

kind. But the Aryans too brought along with

them their own rituals, laws and customs.

The result was, that the Aryan and the pre-

Aryan civilisations acted and reacted uponeach other for centuries, and ultimately beganto coalesce into one great Indianculture.

But this newer creation was possible,

because forces which combined to produce it

were themselves still living, that is, endowed

with the vital principle of assimilation.

The influx of many new tribes from

outside her borders did not yet cease while

India's civilisation was still in the making.Names of many such tribes are to be met with

in the pages of the Ramayana, the

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2 MEDIEVAL M Y S T I C I S M

Mahabharata and the P u r a n a s.

Scythians, Huns and such other

tribes gradually became merged into the

great social organism of India, because at the

time of their coming the society of this countrywas not yet devoid of life which is to be

characterised by its power of assimilation.

These foreign tribes though they brought alien

cultures were remarkably free from any rigid

dogma or fixed creed which might be antago-nistic to the Indian spirit; and besides this,

till then India was able to receive new ideas

arid to assimilate them. It is for these reasons

that, within a generation or two, those new-comers were filled with the religious spirit of

India, and her ideas and ideals became quitetheir own.

That the Vedic ritualism gradu-

ally tended towards the Philosophy of the

Upanisads and thinkers of the time were

turning little by little into profound mystics,

might have been due to a similar interaction

of ideas and cultures. Things which were

mere ideas in the Upanisads began graduallyto give shape to human life and its spiritual

longings. Mahavira, Gotama (the

Buddha) and others gave impetus to this

new current of idealism. At that time life and

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 3

its inherent energy with its varied manifesta-

tion were still having their full play in

different departments of Indian civilisation.

In other words, Indians were still then

a living people in every aspect of their

life : in their religious principle and its

practice, in the organisation of their reli-

gious sects or of society in general, manage-ment of kingdoms and empires, in arts

and literature and in everything else. Butlater on, the people of the land began

gradually to lose this mervellous power. Their

religious life, social organisation, politics as

well as common ideas, ideals and activities all

came to be smaller and more narrowed by and

by. This occurred at the beginning of the

Indian Middle age.

This age however became again filled upwith prema (love) and bhakti (devotion) whenI s 1 a m's political power and its spiritual

culture appeared in the land.1 Observance of

many complex rituals and various supersti-

tious practices as well as an excess of

emotionalism which were smothering India's

natural devotion and love of God, received a

rude shock from the political power of

Islam, and this shock, together with its new

kind of aggressive monotheism and staunch

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4 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

faith, brought awakening to the indigenousnatural love and devotion and the monotheism

that already existed in the land from a hoaryantiquity. For in the Vedic mantras (hymns)where risis (seers) like Vasistha sang

hymns in praise of Indra, Varuna andother deities we have bhakti in its incipient

stage. But the Aryans on the one hand liked

the formalism of sacrifice and other rituals,

and on the other hand sometimes they evinced

a leaning towards the pure knowledge of the

Brahman. An abundance of the attitude of

bhakti however existed among the Dravidians

and probably other pre-Aryan settlers of the

land. The mtellectualism of the Aryans whenit blended with the early cult of bhakti began

gradually to make the religious spirit of India

deeper and broader.

On the eve of the age of the Upanisads as

we have seen before, an opposition to sacri-

fices and other rituals was gradually awaken-

ing deep mysticism in the heart of the Indian

Aryans. This mystic element together with

bhakti and prema began to influence the

popular mind. Later on when the Buddhists

broadcasted in India their purely intellectual

dharma, this- also had the effect of further

deepening that influence. Gradually the Bud-

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 5

dhists also received in their turn a profoundinfluence of prema and bhakti.

Though it was due to a reaction of the

worship of village deities, symbols and imagesbhakti and prema increased in the heart of the

people. Devotion of the S a i v a s andVaisnavas is a proof of this. It must

however be admitted that this bhakti at first

was not of the ideal kind; the conception of

the Divinity involved in it was very narrow

indeed. But as the time passed it began to

outgrow its original smallness. Though Saivas

and Vaisnava_s continued to utter the name of

Siva or V i s n u, the meaning of these

words gradually came to be extended to the

One and the Infinite, and thus every obstacle

to the true bhakti vanished. The devotees

developed the power of seeing through

symbols.Various weak points which developed in

Indian society when Mahomedans first came

to India, found expression also in a decadence

of bhakti and of spiritual illumination. It has

been mentioned before that these two things

began to revive after the advent of Islam and

its spiritual culture when Hindus in their

attempt to meet the challange for superiority

had to pay attention to the spiritual wealth of

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6 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

their forefathers which by that time fell into

comparative disuse.

History has often proved that real strengthioes not lie either in the superiority of num-bers or in the vastness of its extent. Thusmillions of Hindus in spite of their marvellous

heroism could not for a long time withstand

he onslaught of a handful of foreigners. For,

'he latter though small in number were acting

together under the inspiration of a living

ideal, while the former by that time lost the

3inding force of any great idea which could

inspire them for the defence of their own cul-

ture. But it must be said to the credit of Indiathat she did not fall so quickly under the sway3f the Mahomedans as did the Europeans.The unparalleled heroism which the fightersfrom different parts of India such as the

Rajputs, Southerners and Easterners etc.

showed in many a battle field stemmed the

tide of invasion for some centuries. The Hindu

society of that time began to be deficient in

iat living force by means of which it could

ibsorb new-comers from outside the borders of

[ndia.|

And the Mahomedans, unlike the

Scythians and the Huns brought along with

them not merely different but contradictoryideas, ideals and creeds. For Islam had its

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 7

exclusiveness of Semitic origin, which

very carefully defined and maintained its

boundaries. Even the inclusiveness that wasnatural in life came to be smothered in Islam

by the pressure of artificial creeds and

domgas. This latter fact made their assimila-

tion in the Hindu society an extremely diffi-

cult affair. Temples, monasteries and other

holy shrines gradually faced a great danger,and consequently the holier shrine of the heart

which is the chief seat of the Spirit began

gradually to flourish.

Lest India should sustain a defeat before

the newly arrived ideal and its missionaries,

the sddhakas of India began to rummage the

treasure-house of the past to bring out those

great ideals which fell into disuse and were

forgotten; and they made efforts once more

to hold them up before the public so that the

latter might pursue them in Iheir own lives.

This was at the root of the spiritual activities

of the Indian Mediaeval times which found ex-

pression in the new bhak'ti and spiritual

vision.

Just as the idols and holy shrines of the

Dravidians, opposed though they were to the

Aryan ways, awakened bhakti in the heart of

the Vedic people, so the religious experience of

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8 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

[the Mahomedans as well as their opposingideals resulted in the awakening of the samebhakti in the Northern India, The great teacher

Ramananda brought these two currents

of bhakti together. .He gave up the use

of Sanskrit, and in peoples' language preachedabout jndna (knowledge) and bhakti to all

irrespective of their castes. And Mahomedansalso in their turn came to be influenced by this

kind of idealism. A staunch faith, puritanismand pure monotheism which they brought

along with them gradually began to be tingedwith the colour of Indian thoughts. Duringher Middle ages India began afresh to

replenish her treasure of ideas by a remarkable

union of those two different kinds of idealism.

India, indeed lost her power but this

power together with cause of its loss was ex-

ternal; her real strength still lay hidden within

in a dormant condition, and for its full

awakening it was waiting for the excuse of a

chance btelow. This blow came at last with

the invasion of the Mahomedans.It is for the reason of this great help of theirs

in the spiritual awakening of Mediaeval India

that the religious history of this time should

begin with a record of their spiritual

efforts.

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 9

But one should not conclude that India of

those days lacked a refined intellectualism or

the power of penetrating thought. For, the

great thinkers of the time were capable of

astonishing the world by the subtlety of their

marvellous power of analysis displayed with

regard to logic and philosophy as well as art

and literature. But sadly enough they

gradually lost the power of creative synthesisand had before them no great ideal of life.

Their ideal, vision and creative energy then

came to be smaller, narrowed and weakened,and they paid all iheir attention to hair-split-

ting discussions.

The history of the period of the Mahome-dan invasion is full of accounts of royalleaders and their allies. Time and again theyhave come down upon the land with host of

their soldiery, and city after city and

kingdom after kingdom fell before their

victorious arms. But this surely was not

the process by which one could attain success

in the matter of conquering the heart of the

people. Many of course became converts to-

Islam due either to greed and material advan-

tages or to a threat of death and oppressionadministered by invaders and their militant

followers, but the true conquest of India's

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10 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

heart could not be effected in this abominable

way. It needed the coming of Mahomedaji.saints and sddhakas for accomplishing such a

piece of work. And who but these peoplecould satisfy them whose intense thirst for

idealism made them look for a new truth and.a new ideal ? For, we need not repeat that con-

version to Islam was never restricted to those

people only who were guided in this matter

merely by wordly interests or considerations,

either by a greed of wealth and position, or

by a fear of death and oppression, or by,a feeling of revolt against the existing social or

religious organisation. At a time when the

socio-religious order came to be dissociated

from a great truth, the blind and lifeless

society failed to solve the problem of her

neglected millions, Had these latter no other

means of escape they would have become

resigned to their fate and allowed themselves

|

to be trampled on for ages. But a new force

came to give them deliverance. Sddhakas

came from abroad with their different ideals

and began to settle in different parts of India.

Under these circumstances those people, whowere still an unsolved problem with the Hindu

society, collected round these sddhakas.

Places where the latter met their disciples and

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 11

guided them to new truth gradually grew upto be places of pilgrimage.

But among these newly arrived perso-

nages too, those who were orthodox and

intolerant Mussulmans could not win the heart

of people so much, as did the sddhakas full of

S u fi idealism. Indeed there were manyother factors that led to the numerical

strengthening of Islam in India, but the root

of its spiritual influence is to be looked for in

the efforts of the latter class of idealists.

Due to natural reasons these illustrious

new-comers appeared first in the Punjaband S i n d h; for these places lay in the his-

toric way by which foreigners came down to

India. An account of these sddhakas must

begin with the famous M a k h d u mSaiyad Ali al Hujwiri popularlyknown as D a t a-g a ii

jB a k h s h or A 1

J u 1 1 a w i. He was an inhabitant of Jullab

and Hujwir near Ghazni. During his early

life he travelled over many countries and

finally made Lahore the field of his spiritual

activities. It was here that his life came to a

close. Even to these days many pilgrims

Mahomedans as well as Hindus come to paytheir homage to the saint at his tomb or

mazar near the Bhati Darwaja of Lahore.

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12 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

From an inscription on its dpefr we learn that

he died in; 1072 (465 A.H.)/Many pilgrims assemble around the tomb

on every Thursday but the great annual fair

takes place on the fourth Thursday in the

month of Sravana (August). The story goesthat saints like Khwaja Muinuddin,K h w a

ja Kutabuddin K a k i,

Khwaja or B a b a Fariduddinrealised the highest truth after spiritual

exercises on this very spot. Hujwiri's greatwrork was the K a s h f-a 1-M a h

ju b or the

Mysteries Unveiled. It is a valuable help for

the sddhaka of the Sufi class. According to

the local people he is the first preceptor of

Sufism in India.

A few years ago the present lecturer wasa pilgrim to the shrine of Hujwiri and he saw

that pilgrims had come there from different

parts of the Punjab, such as the places of

saints like Mian Mir, Shahdar MaliShah, Muhammad Goni, P a k

Dona Sahib, Madholal Husain,Khwaja S u 1 a i m a n, and from

mazars of Mir J a nja n i and Khwaja

Sulaiman Tausi. The last two

names belong to Lahore and Rawalpindi

respectively.

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 13

In the Kashf-al Mahjub, Hujwiri has

taught that, for at least three years the

sadhaka should be under the care of a properteacher. During the first year he should free

himself from pride and serve the humanity.In the next he should harmonise all his actions

with divine idealism and serve God. And in

the third or the last year he will have to realise

his own true nature, that is, to see throughhis own heart or 'within'.

With the Sufis fand is the term for a very

deep mystic experience, and it means, paradoxi-

cally enough, dying alive or a total annihila-

tion of the ego. According to Hujwiri, a vowof poverty with reference to spiritual efforts

means a complete dissociation from every

worldly object and an absolute abandonment

of the ego with the intention of realising the

All-embracing Unity. By this kind of realisa-

tion the sadhaka fully develops his eternal

life; his animal nature enveloped in ego dis-

appears and by the divine grace he overflows

with a Godly idealism. Then his interest in

things, as his own comes to an end; hence, an

unnatural relationship (such as that of posses-

sion and exploitation) with them ceases

altogether. This is fand. He further says

that one's individuality should be allowed to

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14 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

perish. A removal of all the worldly obstacles

to spiritual efforts and a full attainment of real

truth and a perfectly passionless condition

constitute the state of fand. A state of pro-

gress towards fand is called hdl or dasd of the

B a u 1 s and the Vaisnavas respectively.

Introspection, meditation, control of breath,

uttering of mantras are its various means ; but

the success according to Hujwiri depends onthe divine grace which is above all those

means. 'X

The influence of the Sufis of the

Chishtiyya school reached India next.

Indeed Khwaja Ahmad AbdulC h i s h t i (died in 966) the great founder of

this school lived in the tenth century, but his

doctrines were brought over to India byKhwaja Muinuddin Chishti who was born in

Seistan in 1142. With a view to be in touch

with all Sufi teachers of the time he came via

Khorasan to Bagdad. He met teachers like

Karmani, Kubra, Suhrawardiand others. In 1193 he was in Delhi but as the

place was not suitable for his spiritual activi-

ties he went to live in Pushkar a place of Hindu

pilgrimage in Ajmer where he died in 1236. Tothe name of this saint Indian Sufis accord an

imperial honour. They call him A f t a b-i-

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 1&

Hind or 'the Sun of India/ There assemble

in his dargdh (tomb) a constant crowd of pil-

grims, Mahomedans as well as Hindus.

A k b a r the Great is known to have travelled

on foot to this place as a pilgrim. A special

fair lasting for six days comes off here every

year. A remarkable feature of this Sufi shrine

is that as in a Hindu temple, music is playedhere daily every three hours from the nawbat-

Jchdnah of dargdh, and around the shrine pro-

fessional female singers of talents sing at the

request of their rich pilgrim-patrons and earn

enormous amounts in fees.

The spiritual activities of Muinuddin

spread all over India, arid even the Brahmanswere not outside his influence. The presentlecturer has seen in Pushkar, Ajmer, a class of

people who call themselves H u s a i n i

B r a h m a n s. They are neither orthodox

Hindus nor orthodox Mahomedans. Theyhave Hindu belief, customs and rituals

together with Mahomedan ideas and practices.

They say, "We are Brahmans, our scripture is

the AtharvaVedain which the Hindu

and the Mahomedan doctrines have been

synthesised."'

This admixture of rites and customs is the

popular counterpart of the higher synthesis

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16 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

which united the sadhaUas of those religions

in a religion of love.

As we have said before they have Hindu as

well as Mahomedan practices. In the matter

of their choice of the latter they choose those

only which do not clash with the Hindu cus-

toms. They have fasts in the month of

Ramazan while Hindu days of fasts and vratas

are also observed by them. Their women dress

themselves like those of the Hindu. Those,

whose husbands are living, wear special marksused by Hindu women of that category, and

their male population utter the name of

H u 3 a i n while they go for alms. In their

neighbourhood there are other sects of mixed

Hindu-Mussulman type. But among them all,

Husaini Brahmans are the most respected,

'in Rajputana and in the district of AgraM a 1 k a n a Rajputs live like the Hindus.

They utter the name of Rama, observe Hindu

practices and at times pay visit to dargdhs. In

fact, they differ very little from the ordinaryHindus.

Priests or K a k a s of the I m a m-

s h a h i sect are something like the Husaini

Brahmans. Members of the Shahdullasect also invoke the authority of the Atharva

Veda and of Niskalanka (the Spotless

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 17

One) the great apostle of Hindu-Mahomedansynthesis. Khwaja QutbuddinK a k 1 of Ferganah a chief disciple of Muin-uddin after knocking at the door of manyteachers, came at last to the latter and acceptedhim as the spiritual guide. He died in the

same year as his guru. His tomb lies near

Qutab Minar and many pilgrims assemble

there even now.

Another chief disciple of Muinuddin wasShaikh Fariduddin Shakarganj.The sweetness which he realised in course of

his meditation earned for him the title Shakar-

ganj (Sarkara-ganj or a depository of sugar).*

According to the Mahomedans the town of

Ajudhan on the Sutlej in the district of Mont-

gomery (the Punjab) received the name P a k-

p a t t a n or the 'holy city' on account of

Shakaraganj's holy association with it. Once

Kilhan completely defeated the Mahomedansthere. From this Pakpattan have gone out two

roads, one to Dehra Ismail Khan and another

to Dehra Gazi Khan. At the time of the

Muharram, pilgrims come there even from

Afghanistan and the far off CentralAsia. It was due to Fariduddin's influence

* His followers believe in the story that 'pleased with his

.sadhana God created lumps of sugar (shakkar^&kt. sarkara)under his seat.

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18 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

that Islam spread in the Southern Punjab. He

preached that the gate of heaven was a very

narrow hole. It was perhaps w^ith this idea

that a hole has afterwards been made there in

a wall, and given the name 'the Gate of

Heaven'. Those credulous pilgrims who aspire

after an easy entrance to heaven pass throughthis hole with great difficulty in a particular

moment (supposed to be auspicious) during the

night of the Muharram. In 1265 Fariduddin

left this world. The famous poet ShaikhSharfuddin was his direct lineal discen-

dant and was known to the world under his

pen-name M a z m u 1.

Ahmad Sabir the founder of the

Sabir Chishti sect was also Shakar-

ganj's disciple. He died near Rurki in 1291.

The chief disciple of Shakarganj wasNizamuddin Aulia who was born in

Badaun in 1238. In his twentieth year he wasnominated by his guru as his successor. Thefamous poet K h a s r u and Amir H u s-

ain Dihlwl were his disciples. Thewell known historian Z i a-u ddinBaranitoo was his disciple. Many Hindu and Maho-medan pilgrims go to Aulia's dargah. The

dargdh of his saintly . disciple C h i r a g h-

Delhi also is well-known.

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 19

The dargah of Shaikh S a 1 i mChishti is in Fatehpur Sikri. Jehangir'sbirth is known to have followed his blessingson the former's imperial parent. He lived in

a cave, but Akbar, afterwards, built a dargahfor him. In 1572 he left this world.

In Sindh and the Punjab Chishti doctrines

were broadcasted by K h w aj a N u r

Muhammad who died in 1791.

The pioneer of Suhrawardi sect in India

was Bahauddin Zakaria who wasborn in Multan, and died there in 1266. Hereceived his initiation in Bagdad. S a i y a d

Jalaluddin Surkhposh came from

Bokhara and put himself under Zakaria's dis-

cipleship. He lived during the latter part of his

life in Uchh where he died in 1291 . His grand-son M a k h d u m-i-J a h a n i a. (died in

1384) was a famous sddhaka. B a r h a n-

uddin Qu t ab-i-Al am, a grandson of

the latter went to live in Gujarat. Pie died in

1453 and his tomb in Batawa is a holy shrine

for pilgrims. The dargah of his son ShahA 1 a m is in Rasulabad near Ahmedabad.

This place is noted also for its natural beauty.

The founder of the K a d i r I branch of

the same Chishti sect was Abdul a 1

KadiralJili. He was a great scholar,

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20 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

writer and orator. Saiyad Muhammad whobrought the Kadhi doctrine to India, was a

(descendant of this master. He died in Ucch in

1517. The famous sddhaka Mian Mir who be-

longed to this sect was much loved andesteemed by Dara Shikoh who in his

Shafinat-i-Aulia treated Mian Mir's life

and work. In 1635 this great man died

in Lahore. M u 1 1 a Shah who later on

preached in Kashmir was a disciple of his.

So far about the Western India. In

Eastern India too teachers like ShahJ a 1 a 1 of Suhrawardi sect in Bengal andMakhdam Shah in Behar extensively

preached their doctrine. Shah Jalal died in

Sylhet, Bengal in 1244.

Sufi teachers tried as far as practicable to

avoid any clash with the Koranic doctrines.

Butir^ spite of this a charge has sometimes

been lavelled against them that they did not'

keep strictly to the ways prescribed by the

Koran. In reply to this charge MuhammadFazl Allah was obliged to write a worknamed the A 1 T u h f u 1 a 1 M u r s a 1-

i 1-a 1-N a b I in which he established that

Sufism was not antagonistic to the Koran.

Fazl Allah died in 1620. He showed that Sufis

conform to orthodox ways (i.e. are ba-sharah).

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 21

These facts notwithstanding gradually there

came up in Indian Islam many doctrines, the

extreme heterodoxy of which could hardly be

offered any effective check.

It is believed by some orthodox Maho-medan historians that, needed as were the Sufis

to conquer the heart of Indian people, the

orthodox preachers of Islam became after-

wards equally necessary for checking the

heterodoxy which was thought to have grownup out of the very Sufi doctrines. When the

rigidly orthodox religion of the first Islamic

conquerors failed to attract people, Sufis

like Nizamuddin Aulia preached a reli-

gion of love which touched the heart

of all and has been universally accepted

by the time of the emperor Akbar. But

during the time of A u r a n g z e b,

the great-grand-son of Akbar, free-thinking

developed among the sddhakas to such

an extent that the orthodox emperor and

his advisers could no longer remain indifferent

to it. S a r in a d who made himself conspi-

cuous by his extreme neglect of conventional

ideas excited the wrath of the emperor who gakhim executed. Rubaiyats (quartrains) Sarmos*

left are very well-known to Sufis. \gra

The free-thinking of Indian Sufis advar un

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22 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

more than anywhere else in Sindh. The

ancestors of F a i z i and Abul F a z 1, the

two friends and ministers of Akbar, camefrom Arabia and settled in Sindh first. Some

generations later they migrated to Nagorein Jodhpur. It is for this reason that

Mubarak the father of Faizi and Abul

Fazl had the title N a g o r I. This Mubarak

Nagori was a thorough scholar in the philo-

sophy and literature of Greece as well as in

Islamic theology.

Though the father as well as sons of the

family were well-versed in the Koran andallied literature there were among them no

great regard for the scriptural injunctions.

Faizi the eldest son of Mubarak (born in 1547)

to whom Akbar gave the title Kavisvara(the lord of poets) translated for the emperorthe Mahabharata, the Ramayana arid some

Vedantic texts into Persian. Besides these he

wrote a commentary of the Koran, which

surely was not from an orthodox point of

view. Faizi was a member of Akbar's mono-

theistic group of Tauhid-i-Ilahi and

*vas a tutor to princes, Abul Fazl, --the

Su,Unger brother of Faizi (born in 1551),

Fa^ame in his fifteenth year proficient in all

P%iches of learning. After finishing his

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 23

education he spent the first ten years in teach-

ins and assisted his elder brother in hisotranslation of Sanskrit epics. But all these

works did not give him any peace of mind. In

his famous history of Akbar he writes, that he

passed the day-time somehow in various

scholastic discussions, but during the night an

inner restlessness robbed him of his sleep.

Often he lelft his bed and went across the

fields to humble cottages of fakirs who were

full of spiritual wealth and were content to

live an unostentatious life in the outskirts of

the metropolis. But there he received nothingwhich could salve his sore within./ Sometimes

he thought of going to the wise men of China

and sometimes to the monks of Drus. Alonging for discussion with Tibetan lamas as

well as Spanish monks sometimes overtook

him while on other occasions he wished he

could learn from the fire-worshippers of

Persia the mysteries of the Zend-Avesta. Hehad no longer any faith either in the orthodox

religion or in rationalism. For their un-

disguised free-thinking Mubarak's familyoffended very much the doctors of Islamic

theology. So, to avoid molestation from those

zealots they had to escape secretly to Agra,where the emperor Akbar gave them an un-

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24 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

assailable shelter. B a d a y u n 1, the

orthodox historian of Akbar's time, was, as

can very easily be expected, not very kindly

disposed to these two brothers. He opinedthat it was they who spoilt the emperor. But

of the two, Abul Fazl who was a great helpin Akbar's free monotheistic movement,,received the attention of this historian more.

For, "Abul Fazl," says Badayum "began to

burn the world with the fire of his blasphem-ous views." The charges of the historian were

perhaps not groundless, for Abul Fazl's

critical attitude must have influenced manyof his associates; for instance, in the mono-theistic group of Akbar there was one AzizK u k a who became very disgusted with the

contemporary religious ideas and practicesafter he had witnessed the bigotry and super-stition of the Mussulmans of Mecca.

It is well-known that Akbar always had

around him a number of scholars who were

mostly liberal in their views. The two most

famous among them have been mentioned

before. The name next in importance is that

of Abdul Rahim Khan K h a n % n

(1553-1629). He, also a minister of Akbar,

was well versed in Persian and Arabic as well

as in Sanskrit and Hindi. Besides this Rahim

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 25

was a Hindi poet of considerable worth andwrote an admirable poem named the R a h i mS a t-s a I. He was a great friend of

T u 1 s i-d a s and was a staunch admirer

of the latter's Ramayan. A further evidence

of his love of the Hindi literature is probablythe tradition which ascribes to him the pre-servation of the most of S u r-d a s's devo-

tional songs on Krisna.

So much about the liberal influences

of Akbar and his circle. But his son

J a h a n g i r and grandson Shah Jahanwere indifferent towards religious and spiri-

tual questions. The story goes that on account

of such an indifference Shah Jahan was once

humiliated byBaba-i-Koh, a Mussulmansaint from hills. A very deep interest in

spiritual matters returned however some

generations later to Akbar's line. For, the

Prince D a r a Shikoh the eldest son of

the emperor Shah Jahan was from his nature

given to think very deeply indeed about

religious matters. He had a catholic heart

and a noble vision and was capable of viewingdifferent religious tenets synthetically. It

has been mentioned before that he wrote a

biography of saints named Shafinat-i-Aulia.

This prince had always around him Hindi

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-26 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

and Sanskrit poets and saintly followers of

K a b I r and D a d u. The famous scholar-

poet Jagannath Misra was amongthem and the saintly B a b a-1 a 1 of the

Punjab was also a frequent visitor to Dara's

court. In a work named M ajm u a 1-

Bahrain, or the Meeting of the TwoSeas, Dara made a synthesis of the Hindu

spiritual doctrine and the Sufistic tenets.

He himself translated some Upanisads andsome philosophical texts in Persian and

.got the same kind of work done by others.

These translated works were given the title

Sir r-i-A k b a r. He had many ambitious

ideas about creating amity among the

followers of different religious systems and

above all a synthesis of the Hindu and the

Mussulman cultures.. But it is a matter of

*extreme regret that his career was tragically

cut off before he could see his plans carried

into action. He left behind him, however,

.some followers who for some time maintained

their interest in his line of work. One of

them was the princes J a h a n-a r a, his

.sister, and the other the prince A z a m

.Shah, a son of Aurangzeb. The latter was

a patron of Hindi poets. His recension of the

-S a t s a I by the Vaisnava poet Bihar!

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 27

is admiringly looked upon as the best of its

kind even at the present time. Besides this, the

Vaisnava poet D e v who wrote R a s v i 1 a s,

P r e m-c h a n d r i k a and other works wasAzam Shah's protege. This prince's partialityfor Vaisnava poets has been commented on byorthodox Mussulman historians as a sad lapseon the part of Aurangzeb's son.

From an account of the Sufis of Sindh wehave digressed into the history of Akbar andhis circle as well as his illustrious scion

Darah Shikoh. Let us now resume that topicwith an account of the four saintly friends,

Shah Kalandar, Faridganj,Jamaluddin and Shah Shakar.Born in Ghazni about the thirteenth century

they were much troubled at the narrowness

and bigotry of the current religious practices;

then they resoved to migrate to some other

land across the sea. Relying on God they

left behind all their worldly possessions, and

afc the end of their travel reached Sehwan in

Sindh. The local patriarchs (plrs) however

tried to drive them away but they persisted in

staying there. Some time after, however, one

of them went to Faridganj and another to

Multan. The contribution of these four

iriends to Indian Sufism is not small.

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28 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

The next important name in Sindh is

that K a r i in Shah. He lived at

about the year 1600. From his biographywritten in a language which is a strangeadmixture of Persian and Sindhi we learn

that a Vaisnava saint living near Ahmedabad

gave him guidance in his spiritual life. This

saint taught Karim to mutter the mysticjl

syllable 'Om' which according to his biographybecame for Karim a revolving lamp hungwithin a dark chamber.

Shah I n a y a t's is the next worthyname is Sindh. This universally adored saint

lived in a much troubled time. For,

K a 1 h o r a princes of Sindh were then

seeking merit by making converts to Islam

under the threat of the sword. As a result of

this many people in order to save tKeir

ancestral faith secretly escaped to Cutchh

and Kathiawar. In his saintly retreat Inyayat

gave shelter to many Hindu families and

saved them from molestation. For he did

not believe that God was the monopoly of any

particular sect. But this attitude enragedthose fanatical Mussulman princes of Sindh

who got him beheaded and sent his head as a

present to the emperor of Delhi. This noble

martyr is remembered and honoured even now

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 29

by all local people as B i n-S i r or the behead-

ed saint.*

Shah L a t i f the grandson of saint

Shah Karim (born 1689) the greatest poet and

singer of Sindh was a prince among all the

Sufi saints of Sindh. He was universally

respected by all communities of Sindh. Evennow his songs are largely sung by people.In Bhit connected with his saintly career

Hindus as well as Mussulmans meet every

Thursday night for spiritual exercises.

Sometimes they sing and sometimes they.all remain absorbed in silent meditation.

Among songs sung there are those of

K a b I r, D a d ii, N a n a k, M I r a-b a i

&nd other saints. (A collection of these

songs has been preserved there in old manu-

scripts). This non-sectarian spirit is very

prominent in Sindh. It occurs very often

that a Mussulman is a guru (spiritual guide)

to a Hindu and a Hindu is a guru io a

Mussulman. They have carried on their

sddhand not only with the same love but also

with the same language.

* Names comparable to his are Salarghazi of Baha-

raich, B i n-S i r of Panipat and Babachuraof Batala and

Lakkhe etc,

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30 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

The names of B e d i 1 and B e k a s

(1859) will practically close the list of

prominent saints in Sindh. The songs of

these two mystic poets are sung even now bypeople, and their tomb is a place where personsafflicted with sorrow and bereavement obtain

their relief. Bekas was known earlier as

Muhammad Husain, and died very

young at the age of twenty-two. But his short

life notwithstanding, he left a deep impressionon the spiritual life of Sindh. The poets

Sachal, Rohal and K u t a b, too were

persons of the same order. Their songs were

beautiful and deep in meaning. In their

dargah pilgrims of all sects and sex keep vigil

and sing. Among songs sung there atre those

by other saints irrespective of their Hindu or

Mahomedan birth. /After Sindh let us turn to other parts of

Northern India in the quest of prominent

spiritual people of Islam who illumined

Muhammadan India by their liberal teaching.

It is not known who united Hindus and

Mussulmans in Girot, a place of pilgrimagein Shahpur in the Punjab. Mussulmanscome here in the name of J a m a 1 i

Sultan while Hindu pilgrims invoke DayalBhawan.

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 31

The dargdh of B a b a F a 1 1 u is in

Karigra Ranital. This Mahomedan devotee

attained the summit of spiritual life throughthe grace of a Hindu saint G u 1 a b Sing,the Sodhi Guru.

In the district of Jhang is the place of the

Hindu saint B a b a Sahana. His former

name was M i h r. He got his enlightenmentafter the discipleship of a Mussulman saint

and came to be known as Mihr Shah.At his shrine in Jhang Hindus and Maho-medans unite in paying homage to his

memory.2

There is a story that Sham s-i-

Tabriz by his occult powers brought under

his control the heat of the sun as well as of

fire. Both Hindus and Mahomedans visit

this place of this saint who has been saddled

with miracles.

The devotees of Musa Suhag (15th

century) dress as females and are compara-ble to the worshippers ofBechara Devinear Ahmedabad. Both these places are

adjacent to each other.

Imam Shah (15th century) of Gujaral

founded a sect named Pirana panthoiKakapanth. It has eight branches bui

its original head-quarters are in Cutchh

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32 .MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

Followers of this sect are mostly P a t i d a r s.

Though they have Hindu names and observe

all Hindu customs except that their dead

bodies are buried with Mussulman rites, theyare disciples of a Mussulman guru. The

Patidar assistant to this guru is called Kaka

(the uncle) who together with Brahmans are

their priests. At the present time Kaka-

panthis of Navsari and neighbouring places

are gradually turning to orthodox Hinduism.

This sect has a Messiah named Niskalanka or

Nakalanki (the Spotless One) who is the tenth

incarnation of Visnu. They worship this

Messiah. In these matters they are similar

to the P 1 r z a d a sect of Bahadurpur, Cen-

tral Province. This sect was founded byMuhammad Shadullain the middle

of the seventeenth century. He culled edify-

ing precepts from both the Hindu andMahomedan scriptures and made these the

basis of his synthetic religion. According to

Shahdulla too Niskalaiika the tenth incarna-

tion of Visnu should be worshipped.A similar confluence of Hindu and

Mussulman sddhands was a very frequentoccurrence in later Mahomedan India. In

the early part of the seventeenth century aMussulman lady named T a

j wrote many

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 33

devotional songs on Krisna. Besides this

Saiyad Ibrahim (circa 1614) whochanced to be under the spell of Vaisnavismand its beautiful mystic songs, turned a

Vaisnava and himself composed similar songswhich testified to the depth of his devotion.

After his acceptance of Vaisnavism, Ibrahim

came to be known as R a s-k h a n. Q a d i r

13 a k h s h, who was his disciple, too gave

expression of his love for Krisna in beautiful

poetry.The K h o

ja sect which has many

followers in Gujarat has been greatly in-

fluenced by Vaisnavism. This was founded

by one guru of Ismailia sect who beganto initiate people like the gurus of the

V a 1 1 a b h a school. Like the followers of

Vallabhacharya the Khojas are veri-

table slaves of their guru who to them is the

incarnation of Krisna. They are merchants

and exceedingly rich. Formerly they hadO / */ ,

Hindu names and customs, but are now turn-

ing gradually to orthodox Islam. But in

Oarhra (Kathiawar) some two hundred and

fifty families have been absorbed by the

S v a m i-N a r a y a n I sect.

Among the Mahomedan literary men too

there were persons of liberal views. Most of

3

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34 M E D I E V A L M Y S T I C I S M

them, in their works, gave expression to what

they thought about the amity of different

religious sects and a synthesis of their tenets.

Malik Muhammad Jayasi (1540)

the disciple of the Chishtiyya sadhakaJM.iih i-

uddin was such a writer. He studied

Sanskrit poetics (alamkard) with Hindu

pandits and wrote, under the inspiration of

Kabir's teaching, the P a d u m a v a t T

a beautiful Hindi poem treating allegoricallv*. O C7 / .

the relation between the Divine Spirit and the

individual human soul. The Hindu ruling

chief of Amethi was an admirer of Jayasi.

It was he who built the poet's dargah.Gr a n d h a r v a-r a j, the chief pandit in the

court of the Raja Jagaddeva of Amethi was an

intimate friend of Jayasi. The poet was

childless, so he conferred his family name'Malik' on the sons of his friend from whomthe present Kathakas of Raipura and Haldia

have descended. Jayasi wished that his

friend's descendants would all possess a sweet

voice and use the same in the adoration of

God. Kathakas of Raipura and Haldia have

still the word 'Malik' added to their name.

Another Mahomedan poet in Jayasfs line

was N 11 r-M u h am m a d (1744). Inspired

by Jayasi he wrote his poem named I n d r a-

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 35

v a t I. It is an allegorical poem like the

PadumavatLThe liberal spirit and noble idealism

which we have traced so long in different

saints and literary men of Mahomedan birth

did not become rare even up till very recently;for it is not a very distant event that HasanN i z a m I, the descendant of NizamuddinAulia and Hafiz of his darydh, wrote a workwith this rather lengthy title: Jlinclnstrin-

ke do payyambar Ram aur Krishna : tialdmu-

Alldhi 'alaihim. There he says, "Accord-

ing to the Koran, God sends his payyambarsin all parts of the world. How can this be

untrue with regard to India ? So Rama, Krisna

and the Buddha are the payyambars of ihis

country and the teachings of these seers carry

authority."

We have already learnt that the religious

Mussulmans coming from abroad were

influenced by the Hindu sddhand. But to

understand the intensity of this influence we

must attempt an account of the specific lines

in which it worked.

If all Sufi writers including Hujwiri have

prescribed obedience to a guru this tenet was

much extended due to a Hindu influence

on it.

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36 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

The Upanisadic cosmology, together with

the words of H aj

I S a b z w a r I who said

much later that the creation was a ray of the

Divine Light, gave the Mahomedan sddhakas

various newer theories of creation which bore

unmistakable marks of their origin.

The mysticism of the B a 1 i n i y a s

became mixed up with the spiritual philo-

sophy of India and gave rise to many newschools which the orthodox doctors of Islamic

theology branded as be-shard' or heretical.

Some Mussulman sddhakas in the Punjaband elsewhere had a great fascination for the

Yog a-system. In imitation of the Hinduworks on the subject they wrote illustrated

treatises dealing with dsana, sat-chakra

kamala-vedha and the mysteries of the physical

system. The present lecturer has seen in the

Punjab several manuscripts of such works.

That the A z a d sect shaved themselves

clean and denied the authority of the scrip-

tures is most probably due to some sort of

Hindu influence. Followers of this sect are

often to be found in Jalaon.

The most remarkable among the Hindu

influences on Islam is the acceptance of

T a n t r i c teachings, by some Mahomedansddhakas. Though the first available instance

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 37

of this is the tenets of R a s 11 1 Shah of

Alwar who belongs to the eighteenth century,

such things surely began much earlier.

To the followers of Rasul Shah who are

well-acquainted with alchemy and poetical

literature and are not averse to drinking,

people ascribe many miraculous powers. Like

the followers of the T a n t r a they sit

in a circle (chakra) and observe V I r-

a c h a r a or 'the ways of the hero1

. And

they claim to be drinking, in the Tantric

fashion, the nectar of the sahasrara (the

thousand-petalled lotus) after piercing throughthe six circles (satchakra) via Ida, p i ri g a I a

and s u s u m n a.

An account of the Hindu influence on

Islam will not be complete without noticing

how the superstitious side of the two reli-

gious systems began to meet. Popular

legendary heroes of the Mussulmans, like

Ghazi Mian, Panch Pir, Pir Badarand Khwaja Khizr began to be

worshipped as gods in the Hindu fashion.

Another such new-fangled deity was S a t y a

Pir or Satya Narayan of Bengal.This godling enjoyed the veneration of the

Hindus and the Mahomedans alike.

Besides the above instances there are

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38 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

cases where the Hindu influence on Islam,

though not directly perceptible, must be

postulated. For instance there are in Bengaltwo small groups of people named B a ii 1

and Z i k i r who strictly speaking constitute

neither a caste nor a religious sect. They call

themselves neither Hindus nor Mahomed ans

though house-holders among them observe

many Islamic customs. On account of this

latter fact, preachers of the orthodox Islam

made an attempt to reclaim them who

appeared to have strayed from the fold, bypublishing fatwas denouncing the Baiil

doctrine. The present lecturer has seen someof these anti-Baiil fatwas. Both Baiils andZikirs are free from the Hindu as well as

Mahomedan orthodoxy. Their spiritual exer-

cises consist in songs and (hey are very liberal

in their views which betray Vaisnava as well

aw Sufi influence.

Most of the teachers named hitherto have

called themselves Mahomedans though the

orthodox followers of the religion have not

failed to denounce them as heretics. This

latter section naturally raised protests in

various quarters. Among such protestants

the F a r a i z i sect of Eastern Bengal is

worth mentioning. The founder of this sect

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 39

Haji Shariatulla was born of

weaver parents in a village of Faridpur. Hemade a pilgrimage to Mecca where he stayedfor twenty years as a disciple of ShaikhT a h i r-a 1-M a k k i. In 1802 he returned

home and began preaching his views. He

protested against an excessive obedience to

guru on the part of a disciple, and said that

India being under a non-Moslem power wasDar-al-Jiarl) or a country in war and was a

place where 'Id and the Jumma prayer stood

ceremonially barred. He exhorted every one

to be strict followers of Islam and to give upworshipping plrs, daryahs and similar objects.

Haji Shariatulla/s son M u h a in in a d

M u h s i n alias Dudhu Mian organisedhis father's followers into different sections

with a creed as follows :

"Within the Faraizi community there is

no distinction between the rich and the poor;

when an individual is in danger all the rest of

the community are to come to his help."

"The earth belongs to God; hence no manhas hereditary right to any land nor can he

demand tax for its use."

Because of this creed of mutual help

among them, members of the Faraizi commu-

nity could offer successful resistance to a con-

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40 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

certed action against them by zamlnddrs and

British Indigo-planters as well as other

Mussulmans. S a i y a d A h m a d of Western

India too preached similar doctrine and helpedto spread the W a h a b i ideas.

Like the Mahomedans the Hindus too

made efforts, in different ways, to keep their

own religious and spiritual culture alive. Asection of them tried to introduce liberal ideas

with the maximum retention of old laws and

customs, while the other section, in contrast

with these virtual conservatives, in their

attempt of creating an unity and synthesis

paid least heed to old scriptures and customs.

According to the Mahomedan theologians the

first parly is ba-s?iar& or conformist, while

the rival party is be-shard' or heretical.

JBaiilswho have a very keen sense of humour

characterise the reformers of the first school

as 'fellows with a long tether5 and the members

of the other school as 'fellows with no tether'.

This homely but apt simile is taken from the

pasture where the animal tethered with a long

rope can browse on a very extensive area but

animals not tethered at all can practically have

a bite anywhere. The latter's is the real

freedom. In the Mediaeval India conformist

or 'long-tethered' reformers were called Loka-

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 41

vedapanthl or 'the followers of customs and

scriptures' whereas the non-conformist or

'untethered' reformers were known as Ana-

bhau-sacha-panthl orc

the followers of truth as

experienced through intuition'. This first

lecture is about the 'long-tethered' ones

among the Mahomedans as well as the

Hindus. The 'tetherless' ones of both the com-

munities will form the principal subject of

discussion in the second lecture. Up till nowthe Mussulman ba-sharcT or conformist grouphas been reviewed. Hence before concludingthis lecture we shall attempt to give an account

of the efforts of the conservative section of the

Hindus for the preservation of their religious

and spiritual culture. Facts connected with

this attempt on the part of the Hindus

are more or less known to you all; stiirto makeour account complete the briefest outline of

this history will be attempted here. A more

elaborate treatment of the efforts of the

Mahomedan sddhakas which has been made

here, scarcely needs an apology; for, these

worthy people may not be known to historians

and the general public.

Before the Mahomedans came to India,

Vedic customs and religion had alreadyreceived the death-blow at the hands of heretics-

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42 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

like the followers of Mahavira (Jina) andGotama (the Buddha). But scholars like

Sayana, Madhava, Uvata, Durga,Ana n d a-t i r t h a, B h a t 1 a-b h a s k a r a

tried to give new life to this already decadent

religion by their learned commentaries on the

Vedas. Royal patronage to such works washowever not wanting; for, without the interest

taken in the matter by the king B u k k a

Harihara, Sayana could scarcely write

his marvellous commentaries even in the

fourtheenth century.

Next (o commenting on the Vedas}

the

codification of laws was an important meansat the hand of conservative reformers

of Hinduism. But it was not very easy to

enliven a decaying body by imparting fresh

life into it; for, it has been mentioned before,

that the much-decayed society was crumblingto pieces when the Mahomedans came to occupyIndia. At the time of such a rapid disin-

tegration of the old social order, scholars

like Medhatithi, K u 1 1 u k a-b h a 1 1 a,

V ijn a n e s v a r a, Hemadri, Kaghu-

n a n d a n a were making desperate efforts to

save the society by furnishing clear laws in the

shape of commentaries and digests containing

passages from the ancient and rare law books

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 43

which were once a great binding force amongthe Hindus. The vast amount of industry anderudition which these commentaries and com-

pilers of digests have displayed is marvellous.

Philosophy too received attention of the

defenders of the ancient religious culture

of the land. Even from before the comingof the Mahomedans the famous A a n k a r-

a c h a r y a and his guru tried to awakenall by means of knowledge. And at a

time when the Buddhist monasteries were

on the decline Sankara established four

monasteries for training monks who would

preach his doctrines. This probably gave a

new impetus to the study of the s i x

schools of philosophy and

a host of commmentators look up the field for

enlightening the public on philosophicalidealism. But the general mass of people were

not much affected by these measures whichwere meant only for the learned.

A revival of the study of the Tantras

popularly but unjustly4

believed to be meresource of corrupt practices became graduallyan instrument in the hands of the conserva-

tive reformers of Hinduism. Valuable wisdomand deep philosophy contained in works like

the Mahanirvana, Kularnava and

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44 M E D I E V A L M Y S T I C I S M

Visvasara and other Tantras were first

little known outside the circle of Yedantists

and professional scholars. Authors of these

works wrote in a very simple style and madean admirable attempt to popularise the teach-

ing of the Tantras.

In the Mahanirvana Tantra an advocacywas made in favour of the realisation of the

Brahman and the practices leading to it, to the

exclusion of the worship of various deities.

Meaningless social customs have been under-

mined, and to all persons irrespective of their

sex and caste have been accorded the right to

the highest form of spiritual self-culture. In

brief, authors of such Tantric texts tried to

hold before the Hindus a new but perfect ideal

of life. With this end in view, they, on the one

hand, codified different branches of laws such

as marriage, succession, contract etc. and on

the other hand, they chalked outlines of spiri-

tual advancement for the individual ae well

as for society. For the common people who did

not care for larger social ideals and were satis-

fied with an ordinary religious life, A g a m a-

vagisa Krisnananda and other adeptsin the Tantric lore prepared digests like the

Ta'ntrasara giving guidance to different

forms of worship. But, for those who were

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 45

thirsty for deeper spiritual experience,Purnananda and other saclhakas describ-

ed the satchakra and gave exposition of the

Yoga and allied subjects. And commentators

who followed them attempted further elucida-

tion of these things.

Followers of the Bhagavata cult too

contributed their share in the attempt madefor the preservation of Hinduism. The popu-lar belief among scholars regarding the origin

of this cult is that it spread in this country

along with (he coming of tribes like Y a d u s,

Turvasus, and Vrisnis etc.; and this

cult syncretising with indigenous religious

ideas produced the unique cult of B h a k t i.

It received influence also from the Yogadoctrines. From the authors of the P a n c h a-

r a t r a literature, the S a n d i 1 y a Sutraand the Narayanlya chapters of the

Mahabharaia down to Narayana Pari-v r a

ja k a and even some of his worthy

followers of later times, attempts have been

made to popularise the Bhagavata cult. Asthis subject has been ably treated by scholars

like Sir R. G. Bhandarkar* it will

See his 'Vaisnavism gaivism and Minor Religious Systems'.

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46 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

be scarcely worth while to dilate on it in this

lecture.

Just as the followers of Buddha made himthe complete embodiment of all their ideals and

aspirations, the worshippers of Siva and Visnutoo tried to make these deities a symbol of all

their ideals and aspirations. Their efforts

continued down to the Mahomedan period of

Indian history and gave strength to Hinduism.

The A 1 v a r s of the Southern India

created a strong following among numerous

people mostly Vaisnavas. To them utterances

from the Divine mouth of the Alvars (or the

T i r u V a y m o 1 i) in spite of their birth

in untouchable families, were more honoured

than the Vedas. Andal, a woman was an

Alvar; she and her father Visnuchitta,an Alvar too, were from low caste, but theywere greatly adored by people notwithstand-

ing their very humble birth.

On love and devotion which are inherent

in the human heart these Alvars based

their N e o-B h a k t i cult. From the time of

their successors like Natha muni,ALv an d ar-Y am unach ary a, P i 1 1 e y-

Lokacharya (the author of the Artha-

panchaka, 1213) this Neo-Bhakti movement

progressed uniformly up to the time of

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 47

Ramanuja; but afterwards it changed its form

to some extent. Utterances of the Bhakta

Alvars created the sweet sap of devotion

(bhakti) while later teachers like Nathamuniand Yamunacharya tried to supplement the

same by associating knowledge (jfidna) with

it. In the caste-ridden Southern India of the

twelfth century Ramanuja preached devotion

to Visnu and gave a high status even to mem-bers of the lower castes. And he it was, w^ho

recognised the vernacular devotional works

such as the T i r u V a y m o 1 i of the

Pariah like Thirupan Alvar as the Vedaof the Vaisnavas. But curiously enoughhe could not break the rules of caste. As

followers of one religious doctrine, the

worshippers of the Visnu were equal, but caste

rules divided them socially. To get over the

difficulty a rule was, therefore, made that every

one should take his meals separately. For the

question of status among castes occurring only

when different people are to dine together will

not then occur at all. This makeshift method

represents the T e n-k a 1 a i or the Southernschool. Even in this school, V e d a n t a-

d e s i k a of the sixteenth century discovered

some excessive freedom and re-introduced

many old and Vedic customs among the

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48 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

followers of the Neo-Bhakti cult, and started

what is called the V a d a-k a 1 a i or the

Northern school.5 Customs to which he

gave a fresh lease of life included the perfor-

mance of the Vedic Jioma in the marriage cere-

mony and the tonsure of women at the death

of their husbands. These two customs were

previously abolished by the Southern school.

Bamanuja wrote the philosophy of the

Neo-Bhakti cult. As the dualism preached

by Bamanuja was influenced by the monis-t i c Vedanta it also goes by the name of the

Q u a 1 i fi e d Monism ( Visistddvaitavddd).

As plenty of good works on the subject are

.available it does not seem necessary to attempt

here a summary of the same. Bamananda of

whom we shall speak in our next lecture be-

longed at first to the sect of Bamanuja but

subsequently he seceded from it and became

with his new ideas one of the great teachers of

the Mediaeval India.

AnandaTirtha (1331) who was origi-

nally a Saiva of Sarikara's school turned later

on to Vaisnavism and became the founder of

the M a d h v a sect, which accepted dualism.

In his spiritual method too Ananda Tirtha

shunned the Vedanta and inclined to the

ways of the S a n k h y a-Y o g a.

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 49

In the beginning of the fifteenth centuryVisnusvami preached Vaisnavism, in

the Southern India. As his doctrines were

supposed to have come from R u d r a (Siva)

his followers are said to belong to the R u d r a

sect. Laksmana Bhatta a descen-

dant of Visnusvami migrated to Ihc Northern

India where his son Vallabha preached4V a 1 1 a b h i s m ?

or the Way of Divine

Grace (Pusti-maryd). In his sect God is con-

sidered to be the embodiment of satcliiddnanda

(Existence, Intelligence and Bliss). And the

philosophy of this sect is known as PureN o n-d u a 1 i s m (Suddliadvaitavada). Ac-

cording to the followers of N a m-d e v,

Visnusvami learnt Wiaktl from their master.

Considering the chronological position of the

two this does not seem to be improbable. Evenin important sects like the Ramanujis it is

often found that great teachers have received

inspiration from illiterate outcastes like some

of the Alvars.

N i m b a r k a's followers constitute

another sect of the Vaisnavas. They are knownalso as the sect of S a n a k a or the

followers of M o n i s m-w i t h-d u a 1 i s m.

(Dvaitddvaitavddd). They hold ;the oldest

doctrine. Chaitanya's doctrine is also

4

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50 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

called the Madhvism of Bengal. For, anoffshoot of the Madhva teaching came to this

province and gave new life to the Maha-p r a b h u or the Great Master (Chaitanya).Even before Chaitanya's time there were in

Bengal Vaisnava teachers like Isvarapuriand K e s a v a-b h a r a 1 1, but it was the Great

Master who preached the Neo-Bhakti cult of

Bengal.6 In his religious sect Chaitanya

accepted different castes of Hindus as well as

Mussulmans, but he failed to unite them

socially. Caste-rules remained. Born in 1485

Chaitanya died in 1533. Before his time

poets of early Vadsnavism like J a y a d e v a,

Vidyapati and Chandldas hadinfluenced the people of Bengal. Thus after

joining hands with Nityananda, a

powerful exponent of the S a h aja school

the Great Master's teachings spread veryeasily. Later on, masterly writers like R ii p,

S a n a t a n, Bay Ramananda, JivG o s v a m I and Krisnadas Kavirajfurnished the Master's doctrines with philo-

sophical and theological foundation. Duringhis life-time the Master's teachings werecarried to Orissa and Vrindavan. Later on,

Assam too followed in the wake of Chaitanya,and Gossains of the four shrinea

Page 97: Medieval Mysticism

ORTHODOX THINKERS 51

in Majuli (Assam) too preached his doc-

trines.

The Mahapurusiya sect of

S a n k a r-d e v in Assam is a little moreliberal than those Gossains; for, he being a

Kayastha had to have less narrowness in

social matters and made disciples of the

aboriginal tribes (N a g a s and M i k i r s)

as well as Mussulmans. One special feature

of his teaching is that he strongly denounced

worship of images and practices connected

with it. Among his followers u d r a s too

have, at times, Brahman disciples.

Besides this, Vaisnavas of Rajputana too

were influenced by the school of Chaitanya.And the same influence of BengaliV a i s n a v i s m is perceptible among Banias

of Balsar (Surat) as well as the inhabitants of

the far off Dera Ismail Khan (Punjab). Theyall consider Vrindavan and Navadvip to be the

most important among holy places and someof them sing some Bengali devotional songs.

People of the Vallabha sect are

largely to be met with in Gujarat and Cutchh.

We have already mentioned Vallabha's

parentage. In 1479 he was born in Benares.

His followers worship the deities Radha and

Krisna with all possible pomp and show.

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52 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

Vallabha's son V i 1 1 h a 1 was a Hindi

prose writer of considerable worth. Four

disciples of his father Vallabha, together with

four of his own, were all poets exerting their

literary powers on behalf of the cult of Krisna's

adoration. These eight are collectively knownas the Eight Stamps (asta-chhap). Thefamous blind poet S u r-d a s was one of

Vallabha's four disciples. According to one

Tradition six brothers of the poet fell fightingthe Mahomedans, but the blind man could not

fight and hence lived to become a poet oi

divine love. According to some authorities

Sur-das's father was one of the musicians of

[Akbar's court and hence must have lived muchlater .v

Another important name in the history of

the Vallabha sect is V r aja v a s i-d a s of

Vrindavan. The Vraj-vilas which he

wrote in 1770 is a well-known work of the

Vaisnavas.

In course of time a manifold corruption

set in among the followers of Vallabha. As a

protest against this, C h a r a n-d a s in 1733

started in Delhi his new sect which has been

jailedafter him Charandasi. His teachings

(Ire very much in agreement with that of

Labir. Dara Shikoh's works too gave him

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 53

some inspiration. Another sect which arose in

protest against the decadent Vallabha school

was that known as S v a m I-N a r a v a n I. Its%/

founder S a h aja n a n d a was born in 1780

in the village of Chhapaiya or Chhippiya in

Gonda (Oudh). Inspired mainly by seeing the

devotion of a simple illiterate C h a m a r

(leather-worker), Sahajananda realised the

urge of spiritual life and the essentials of reli-

gion in their simplicity and naturalness, This

enlightenment impelled him to preach a pure

religion. He fought against the Vallabhites

and founded his Svami-Narayani sect, the

chief centres of which are in Bartal in Gujaratand Garhra and Mull in Kathiawar. This

sect recognises the right of lower castes to

spiritual life and accepts Mahomedans too ii

its fold. It has been mentioned before thai

some 250 Khoja families have been admitted

to this sect.

Members of the Radhavallabhisect which arose from the Nimbarka or the

Sanakadi sect consider, like the Tantrics, Sakti

to be superior to Pnrusa. Hence they putR a d h a before K r i s n a. In 1585 the bhaktaH i t a H a r i v a m s a founded this sect

in Vrindavan. In Bengal too Vaisnavism

together with Tantricism gave rise to different

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64 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

new doctrines. Vaisnavas who are under the

influence of the Tantras have more regard for

Chandidas, Nityananda and V I r-b h a d r a

than Chaitanya, the Great Master. It may be

that the Radhavallabhi sect was influenced

by a sect which held similar views. There is

nothing strange about this, for even Chaitanyahimself had to carry on his mission in co-

operation with people who held such doctrines.

As for the similarity of the Radhavallabhis

with the Bengal Vaisnavas it may be said that

N a g a r i-d a s of the former sect was looked

upon by many as belonging to the latter group.Under the influence of the Bengali

Vaisnavas the Haridas! sect arose in

Vrindavan in the middle of the sixteenth

century. Leading teachers like V i 1 1 h a 1-

vipula, Viharini-das and S a h a-

chari-saran (1763) were born within this

sect. The poet Sital Svami belongedto the T a 1 1 1 sub-sect of the Haridasi sect

and was born in 1723. There is a story that

Mira-bai who was traditionally known to be

a disciple of Ravi-das once met Jiv

Gosvami of Vrindavan. According to some

authorities she was considerably influenced

by the Vaisnavism of Bengal. This point,

however, is controversial. A critical exami-

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 55

Cation of the same will be out of place in a

general lecture of this kind. The name of the

Marathi saint T u k a r a m should be

mentioned now. He gave up the scriptures

(sastras] and the sacred language (Sanskrit)

and preached, in vernacular, his message of

love and purity which reached the heart of

people. Opinions differ as regards the time of

his birth. Some say it occurred towards the

end of the sixteenth century and some placethe event in the beginning of the seventeenth

century. Tukaram was a Sudra by birth andwas the son of a grain-merchant. He was a

worshipper of Vithovd of Pandharpur. Some

people believe that Tukaram had intercourse

with Vaisnavas of the Bengal school, for

his guru was K e s a v-c haitanya or

B a b aj

I C h a i t a n y a.7 Tukaram's

abliangs which are very popular among the

bhaktas of his province betray an influence of

N a m-d e v and other saints of the Maharastra.

The centre of Nam-dev's sect is in

Pandharpur. He belonged to the tailoring

profession and is usually considered to have

preached between 1400 and 1430. His teach-

ings travelled from the Maharastra to the

Punjab. The present lecturer has seen a

math of his followers in the village of Ghoman

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56 M E D I E V A L M Y S T I C I 8 M

in Batala (Punjab). According to the tradi-

tion available in this math, Nam-dev was born

in 1363 in the village of Narsi-Bahmani in

Satara, Bombay, and his guru was the

famous Jnanesvar. Nam-dev was a house-

holder and a married man. In his fiftieth yearhe renounced the world and travelled all over

India and made acquaintances of saints and

hoi}7 men. For sometime he stayed in Hardwar,

but left the place afterwards for Ohoman in

the Punjab, where he passed his last days. He[met Phiroj Shah (1355-1388) of the

Tuglak dynasty. Shah A 1 a m (1446) the

last Saiyad King of Delhi granied someamount of rent-free land on which a math wasbuilt and a tank was excavated by the royalorder. In 1464 he died in this very math.

According to his followers VisnusvamI the

famous Vaisnava teacher was a disciple of

their master, and the temple on his (Nam-dev's) tomb was built by the joint efforts of

his disciples like VisnusvamI, V o h a r d a s,

J a 1 1 o and Lad d a. Vohardasa's descend-

ants are now the teachers of the sect and they;

look after the administration of the math,

which includes giving relief to the poor from

the income of the temple. Members of the

sect of B a b a N a m-d e v in the district of

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 57

Gurudaspur too are mostly descendants of

Vohardas. In the Ghoman math there is a

two hundred years old manuscript known to

be containing words of Nam-dev. This work

written in Hindi with a sprinkling of Marathi

is considered as sacred as the G r a n t h

Sahib of the Sikhs. But to the Namdevites kripans are not sacred, and in

temple they do not touch this weapon.Nam-dev's birth is celebrated on the

panchami day; and during the first two daysof the month of Magha as well as in the

Janmastami day annual fairs take place in

Ghoman. But the fair in the month of Magha/attract the largest number of people. Nam-dev's sayings have been included in the Granth

Sahib. This famous person has two less

known namesakes. One of them was a calico-

printer by profession and had his place in

Buiand Shahar. Nam-dev of Marwar was a

cotton-carder by birth. Both these were

reputed as bhatttas and have numerous

devoted followers.

Besides these, there are many bhaktas in

the Maharastra and it is not possible to

mention them all in this short lecture. But

in spite of this handicap there remains a name*

which has an urgent claim on our attention. It

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58 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

is the able R a m-d as S v a m I, the guru of

the famous S i v aj

I. In his royal disciple

Ram-das met an excellent champion for the

re-establishment of the religious ideal of the

Hindus. But, pledged though he was for the

protection and advancement of his own reli-

gion Sivaji had every regard for Islam and

was never half-hearted as regards discharging

his duties towards saints and shrines of the

same faith.

From the Maharastra, let us now turn

to Gujarat. The name that deserves to

be mentioned first is Narsi Mehta (1413-

1476) who was born in a Nagar Brahmanf

family of Junagar. Beautiful songs of divine

love that he composed are a permanent source

of joy and inspiration to the bhaktas of

Gujarat, Saurastra, Cutchh and the neighbour-

ing places.

Besides Narsi Mehta there are other

bhaktas too : one of them is a goldsmithAkha Bhagat (1613-1663) who flourish-

ed in Ahmedabad. In the beginning he was

a Vaisnava but turned, later on, a follower of

Vedanta. He left behind considerable numberof songs composed by him. N i s k u-

1 a n a n d a (born in 1775) another bJiakta

was an inhabitant of Garhra Kathiawar. He

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 59

was a carpenter by birth. After his initiation

into the Svami-Narayam sect he composedsome very excellent songs.

Santa Ram a well known sddhaka

of Gujarat lived and preached in Nadiad. In

Umreth and Padra too there are two centres

of his followers who do not worship anyimage. Mussulmans too are allowed to enter

this sect.

Madhavgar (circa 1824) flourished

in the neighbourhood of Nadiad. He did not

like sectarianism and preached a very liberal

teaching which was as free from any distinc-

tive mark as the Brahman itself. He hadlittle regard for conventional ideas and

practices, and he said that no effort for

spiritual uplift could succeed without lofty

principles and practice of morality. In

Gujarat there are many sddhakas who follow

L a k s m a n g a r.8

Sddhakas of the Svami-Narayam sect

like Brahmananda, Devanandaand others created even among the Mussul-

mans, and Hindus of the Pariah class, an

interest for the spiritual life. By their efforts

the message of Divine Love was spread even

among the lowliest.

We now come to T u 1 s i-d a s one of the

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60 M E D I E V A L M Y S T I C I S M

most famous religious teachers of the Northern

India. Born in a Kanaujia Brahman family;

of Rajpur (Banda), he had his initiation in

the cult of Bhakti, it is said, in the unorthodox

sect of Ramananda and was sixth in succes-

sion from that famous teacher. Ramanandawas the most successful among those whotried to impart vigour and fulness to Indian

religious life by holding before people a

perfectly ideal Rama and Krisna. Number of

North Indian people who have quenched their

spiritual thirst by reading Tulsldas's Hindi

Ramayan can scarcely be estimated. To many]of them, even the Ramayana of V a 1 m 1 k i

is of less value than the Ramcharit-m a n a s which is overflowing, as it were,

with a divine love and holiness. Tulsidas's

V i n a y a-p a t r i k a, which contains someexcellent prayers, is also a priceless gem to the

bhaktas.

Tulsidas's Ramayan calls to our mindthe authors of the Bengali Ramayan and

Mahabharat. A detailed account of them is

however needless to a Bengali audience. But,

a matter of common knowledge though it is

how K r i t t i v a s's Ramayan andK a s I r a m-d a s's Mahabharat have kept

every Bengali home lively for the last few

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 61

centuries, very few are aware of the interesting

fact that Kasiram-das's Mahabharat has

reached the hand of the Hindi speaking

peasants in the far away districts of Raypurand Bilaspur (C.P.) During his tour over those

districts the lecturer has actually seen this

book read by the people. As can easily be

imagined they do not understand the languagewell but like Tulsi-Ramayan every day theyread carefully a portion of their Kasldasi

MahabharakNot only in Bengal but also in other parts

of India, authors of the vernacular versions of

the Ramayana and the Mahabharata have

done immense service to the Hindu religion

and culture. But the Mahabharata, thanks to

Kasiramdas, has nowhere been made so

popular as it has been in Bengal. Side byside with the vernacular version of national

epics various popular institutions such as

ydtrd, kathakata, pilgrimage, religious fairs,

bhajans, klftans, and samklrtan etc. helped

greatly towards keeping India religiously

alive.

Nothing has yet been spoken about the

S a i v a devotees. Though Saiva or N a k u-

1 1 g a Pasupata scriptures were available

among the Kashmirian scholars, real Saiva

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62 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

bhaktas however were to be found in the

Southern India. The famous expositors of

the Saiva philosophy were the KashmirianA b h i n a v a-g u p t a of the eleventh

century, and his predecessors like S i d d h a

Somananda and others. But a treat-

ment of the Saiva philosophy as well as the

Pratyabhijiia sastra of Abhinavawill be out of place in this lecture. And these

were not popular things. For, those sddhakas

who were devotionally minded cared little for

the abstruse works of Utpalacharyawho wrote for the learned, and turned profit-

ably to the simple utterances of Saiva bhaktas.

Saivism had its stronghold in Kashmirwhere its different schools such as Supra-bheda Agama, SvayambhuvaA g a m a, and Vira Saiva Agamawere prevalent. In a work named the

Channavasav a-p u r a n a names of

many Saiva bhaktas, legendary as well as

historical, are available.

In the Southern India too, as in Kashmir,Saiva bhaktas or Nayanmars cared little

for learned treatises. Works like the S i d-

dhanta-sikhamani, the A s t a-

vimsati aivagama or the

writings of Utpalacharya or Maritonta

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 63

cl a r y a were handled exclusively by scholars.

From the g i v a-j n a n a-b o d h a (1223) of

Meikandadeva we learn that most of

the Saiva bhaktas were non-Brahmans. This

author was a Saiva teacher who worked

among the masses. After him Tiru J n a n a

Sambandha wrote his S a i v a-

s a m a y a-n e r I, and in the beginning of the

fourteenth century IT m a p a t i S i v a-

c h a r y a wrote his Sivaprakasa.But more important than these were the

preachings of non-Brahman S i v a-v a k y a,

Pattinatthu Pille, Paran JyothiMunivar, Aghora Sivacharya,Siva yoga Gyani. They were against

the three things : Brahman, idols and customs

prescribed in the sastras. According to them

one cannot be religious by a blind observance

of the rules of conduct given in ancient books,

and the religious life was a matter of direct

personal experience and it has seldom anyconnection with the narrow conception of the

Divinity in any material image.

Sivavakya of the seventeenth century

says : "What can be done by these artificial

gods whose honour and even existence are

under human control? How can they bringsalvation to me? What is the use, then, of

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64 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

arranging flowers near a block of stone, and

what benefit accrues from the burning of

incense, and the sounding of bells before an

idol and from circumambulating it and observ-

ing similar other practices ? In the same way,

vain is the observance of ninety-six rules bythe Yogi and the incarceration of the flesh,

the muttering of mantras, pilgrimage to holy

places and bathing in the Ganges. So give upattachment and pacify the mind; the holy

Benares will rise up in your heart. It is the

ideal Divinity and not the artificial imagethat is to be worshipped/'

B h a d i r a-g i r i a r very humbly sur-

renders himself to God with the following

words: "When, Lord, will my senses be

curbed, my pride turned down and mystruggles be ended in an excellent repose?"

He then doubts if it is possible to realise God

,by a study of the scriptures, and to develop

bhakti by an extensive reading, and looks for

>a day when he will be able to burn the

scriptures and set the Vedas at naught and

the door of his own inner self will be openunto the Supreme Bliss. For his spiritual

freedom he becomes impatient. "When,"askes he, "will freedom come to rne who amlike an imprisoned fish, and when shall I be

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ORTHODOX THINKERS fi.

O7

able to lay myself at the feet of God and merge,

my own nature into His?"

. Pattinatthu Pille says that God does not

reside in a stone or copper image which is

made by human hands and is also subject to

occasional cleansing. "Look for him," says,

Pattinatthu,uin the inmost recess of your

heart, in the heaven of sadhaka's soul and in

the love of humanity/' Nothing could be

deeper and more elevating.It is very difficult to have a complete his-

torical account of all Indian bhaktas in anysingle book. G o k u 1-n a t h (fl. in 1568) the

son of Vitthal wrote a work named C h a u-

rasivartta or the Eightyfour Messages.And next comes the Bhaktamal of

N a b h a who is supposed to have lived about

the sixteenth century. This Nabha as an

orphan of the Dom (undertaker) caste was

picked up by A g r a-d a s of the Vallabha

sect who brought him up.9 Some believe that

Nabha belonged to the sect of Ramananda andthis was the reason of his paying additional

attention to the worshippers of Ram. But in

his commentary to the Bhaktamal P r i y a-

d a s has referred to many bhaktas of Krisna

as well. The reason of this is to be found in

the fact that the commentator belonged5

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MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

the Krisnite Brahma sect founded byMadhva.

In the Bhaktamal there are accounts of

one hundred and sixty bhaktas. Except some

twenty names which are legendary we find

that all other bhaktas are historical. But the

Bhaktamal deals mainly with bhaktas who are

sectarians and pay respect, to the sdstras. An

exception however has been made in caso of

Ravi-das and Kablr. Though they did not

belong to high castes their prominence amongthe disciples of Ramananda has made it im-

possible that their names should be left out of

any chronicle of bhaktas worth the name. Butnames like Dadu, Nanak and Raj j

ab are

wanting in the Bhaktamal. The cause of such

an indifference on the part of the authors of the

work, who were sectarians, is that they were

much afraid of extending recognition to the

latter group of bhaktas who were extremelyfrank about their denunciation of sects. That

the South Indian bhaktas have not been men-

tioned in the Bhaktamal is probably due to

ignorance on the part of the author. But

fortunately for us there are Bhaktamals other,

than that composed by Nabha. These andsimilar biographical materials preserved in

different maths and sectarian head-quarters

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ORTHODOX THINKERS 67

when properly collected will furnish the basis

of an excellent history of the sddhakas of the

Mediaeval India. It is needless to discuss here

about all the bhaktas of Ihe orthodox typementioned in the Bhaktamal. For, this workis easily available and those who care for the

subject may have a look into it. Besides the

above there are some documents written in

Persian. Among them all, the Dabistanhas been utilised by W i 1 s o n in his work on

Indian religions. On Tamil bhaktas too

there are works which have been mentioned

earlier in this lecture. The lecturer earnestly

hopes that young Indian seekers of truth will

collect and study all such documents and helptowards giving a complete account of India's

efforts in the field of religious and spiritual

culture.

Page 114: Medieval Mysticism

LECTURE II.

LIBERAL THINKERS

A quest of the origin of the heterodox

religious sects of the Indian Mediaeval times

will carry one to an age vastly anterior to that

period. Referring to this the B a ii 1 s saythat only the artificial religions have an his-

torical beginning, while the religion which is

natural and free, is as old as the time itself.

And these very words find an echo in the

Sahajananda of Sundar-das (born in

1596) who was a disciple of Dadu. TheBaiils further say that the natural religion

professed by them goes even beyond the Vedic

times (circa 2000 B.C.), and the Vratyasmentioned in the A t h a r v a-V e d a were

the Baiils of their own days. But it is scarcely

of any use to give emphasis on a probable con-

nexion with the pre-historic times. Sddhakas

like K a b I r, Dadu, and R aj j a b also

spoke of the natural religion as a thing eternal.

Earlier still, the teachers of the N a t h and

Yogi sects who flourished in Bengal, Nepaland other parts of the North-Eastern India and

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L I B E K A

whose history preceded ^pation of India by several c

a great extent free from the L

sastras: 1 *Influence which sadlia*

schools, such as Gorakhnath, .

n a t h and the S i d d h a s, exercised

their successors in different parts of India i

not 'been inconsiderable. Even the teachingsof Kablr, Nanak and similar other saints bear

unmistakeable marks of this influence. Songsof Mainamati and Gopichand which

were contributions of the Tsath and Yogi sects

of Bengal were broadcasted all over India by;

the itinerant Yogi singers called B h a r-

t h a r i s. The present lecturer has heard the

song of Gopichand in distant places like the

Punjab, N.-W. Frontier Province, Siridh,

Cutchh, Gujarat, the Maharastra and Karnatak,

As investigations about the history of the Nath

and Yogi sects have begun we shall not here

go into details about them.

The Niranjan sect as well as the

religious movements of the North-Eastern

India had considerable influence on all the

schools of religious reformers of the Indian

Midland. These too have been discussed bycompetent persons and are still being discus-

sed; so we may well leave out this subject.

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xSTICISM

.a maintains its influence

religious teachings travelled

xidland and the Eastern part of

, it has not lost its force even at the

times.11 From the sayings of Kabir

saints we can infer that the teachingsthe Niranjan sect was once very popular in

xiajputana and the North-Western Punjab.

Teachings of the Nath, Yogi and Niranjansects are still not dead in the North-Western

India, Jodhpur, Cutchh, Sindh and neighbour-

ing places. Maths and holy shrines of the

twelve branches of the Yogi sect which are

situated in different parts of India are a stand-

ing testimony to the great influence which the

sect once exercised on the religious life of

India.

Among the radical religious reformers of

Mediaeval India, Ramananda (circa

1370-1440) stands foremost. He is the veritable

redeemer of this age.

From the Haribhakti-prakasikaa commentary on the Bhaktamal written

by Ramanuj-das Harivar (1857-1864;

we learn that Visnu-citta and Sathakopa were

among those who by their teaching inspired

R a m a n( uja with prema and bhakti.

These two teachers belonged to a very low

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LIBERAL THINKERS 71

stratum of the society. So we can easily

assume that Ramanuja was liberal to a very

great extent, but in spite of this his followers

of successive generations reverted to observa-

tion of traditional customs. In their cooking,

dining, drawing water and drinking it, and

regarding the touch of other people, Rama-

nuja's followers are now-a-days such scrupul-

ous observers of minute rules that they are

generally known to be very orthodox.

According to Harivara, Ramananda was

a follower of Ramanuja and fifth in succession

from the master. But when urged by true

bhakti he travelled widely all over India, he

did not care to maintain the orthodox standard

of conduct. On account of this lapse on his

part he had to go out of the sect, although he

occupied at that time a very high position

among the followers of Ramanuja. Rama-

nanda realised that for him who had taken to

the path of bhakti, rules of caste and various

other worldly rules had become meaningless.So he could easily accept food from any one

"In the orthodox society gotras are known bythe names of risis. If such a thing is per-

missible why should not all mankind be

known by the name of the Great God who is

worshipped by all such risis* And as

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72 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

regards the social position it should be decided

by the excellence of bhakti and not by birth."

Thus, from his artificial height Rama-nanda descended to the natural field of premaand bhakti and began to preach his spiritual

doctrines to all people irrespective of their

caste and creed.

His teachings, delivered in Hindiinstead of Sanskrit, was saved from the

fate of being an exclusive property of scholars

or the high caste people. By preaching in

vernacular Ramananda could call together all

people to the natural festive ground of the

spiritual culture. And this gave a great

impetus to the Hindi Literature.The following twelve are known to be

chief disciples of Ramananda. 121. Ravi-das

(shoe-maker), 2. Kablr (Mahomedan weaver),

3. Dhanna (Jath), 4. Sena (barbar), 5. Pipa

(Rajput), 6. Bhavananda, 7. Sukhananda,8. Asananda, 9. Sur-surananda, 10. Parama-

nanda, 11. Mahananda, 12. &rl-ananda.

So we see that there are in Ramananda's

sect, bhaktas from various castes. There is

a tradition among the bhaktas that the

disciples mentioned in the latter part of the

list joined Ramananda from the sect of

Ramanuja. But besides these twelve Rama-

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LIBERAL THINKERS 7,T

nanda had many more disciples most of whomcame from the lower strata of the society.

There were women too among his disciples.

According to Ramananda any bhakta taking

shelter in God merges his previous identity in

Him. Hence he is no longer different from

his brother bhakta who might have come from

a so-called higher caste. But in 1

spite of this,

the orthodox writers of the Bhaktamal and*

other works accepted as truth those foolishi

stories which depict Ramananda as the un-*

willing initiator of Kabir who belonged to a

low caste. If we accept these stories as

authentic history we are at a loss to account

for so many of his other disciples who were

far from being of a high caste. On this point

there are interesting accounts in the literature-

of the R a v i d a s I and other sects. We

regret that they cannot be quoted for want of

time. From his sayings preserved in the

Granth Sahib of the Sikhs we learn

how Ramananda said: "Why do you any

longer call me to go to the temple? Him,

omnipresent and all-pervading, I have met in

the very temple of my heart." In spite of the

clear import of such sayings some foreign

critics do not like to admit that Ramananda

gave up all regard for image-worship and the-

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74 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

rules of caste.13 The argument in support of

their view is that the present day followers of

Ramananda, that is, those who believe that

.they follow the master, worship images and*

observe caste. But following a similar line of

argument one can say that the Lord Jesus, anincarnation of mercy and non-violence, wasnot what he is usually known to be, because

of his professed followers, the high priests of

the cult of imperialism which promotesviolence either in the shape of exploitingweaker races or in the shape of armed conflicts

^mong various gangs of such exploiters. To

judge the past solely by the standard of the

present is a bad critical method.

Ramananda in accordance with the

practice of his day retained the use of the

name Ram as indicating the Deity. To himOod is one, loving, omniscient and is not

the attributeless Brahman but a person, a

loving friend after his own heart, a personal

God. .

This mystic attitude awakened all true

.seekers of God whether within his own sect

or outside it. The tradition has summerised

this fact by the following couplet :

Bftakti Drdvir upajl Idye Rdmdnand/

pragat kiyo Kabir-ne sapta-dvip nau-khandf I

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LIBERAL THINKERS 75

"Bhakti arose among the Dravidians (in the

South); Ramananda carries it (to the North)and Kabir spreads it all over (the Earth, whichconsists of) the seven continents and is

divided into nine parts/'

Next important names to be mentionedafter Ramananda are those of the hhaktas

S a d a n and N a m d e v. Sadan was a

butcher by profession. A fine story about him

given in the Bhaktamal is as follows:{Sadan

had a salgram by which he weighed the rawmeat to be sold. This attracting the notice of

a pious man who felt distressed at the sad

plight of the symbol of Visrm and asked Sadanfor the salgram. Sadan readily satisfied this

stranger's desire. But in the night followingthe new owner of the salgram dreamt to his

utter surprise that the god was desiring to be

put back with Sadan whose simple tyhakti

was fascinating. It goes without saying that

the pious man had to fulfill the desire of the

perverse god.

The Bhaktamal gives an account of howSadan through various trials, physical as well

as emotional, advanced in spiritual life andwas finally called by Jagannath of Puri to that

deity's seat. There are two of Sadan's songsin the Granth Sahib of the Sikhs. Besides

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76 MEDIEVAL M Y S T I C I S M

this famous Sadan there was in Sindh about

1400 another saintly namesake of his whowas a butcher too. We have referred to

Namdev in our first lecture. Like Rama-nanda he too carried the B h a k t i cult of the

South to the North. The fact that many of

the devotional songs composed by Namdevhave been included in the Granth Sahib of the

Sikhs is a measure of the great influence he

had once on the spiritual life of the Northern

Hindustan,

There are some important names amongthe disciples of Ramananda besides the twelve

principal ones already referred to. One of

them is Anantadand whose math is

still in existence in Galta near Amer (Jaypur).His disciple Krisnadas was born in

Kullu in the Himalayas. The ruling chief of

Amer was first a follower of the Yogi sect

but subsequently he turned a disciple of

Krisnadas.

A g r a-d a s and K 1 1 h a, the two dis-

ciple of Krisna-das Pai-ahari, were excel-

lent poets. Many among the bhaktas, such1

as Keval-ram, Harinarayan,P a d m a n a b h, G a d a d h a r, D e v-d a s,

K a 1 y a n-d a s belong to this section of

the Ramananda's followers. The following

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LIBERAL THINKERS 77

sayings of Agra-das are very popular amongthe bhaktas :

"Worship the Lord God who is the god of

all gods."

"Days that pass away in joy and bliss

constitute the fruition of life."

"To attain Hari" says Agra-das, "lose

your body and mind (in Him)."N a b h a was a disciple of this Agra-das.

As a child, Nabha was forsaken by his widowedmother who was a Dom woman and had

scarcely any means for bringing up her son.

Agra-das brought up this orphan and deve-

loped in him a new vision. With a view to

conceal this humble birth of Nabha some have

traced his genealogy to Hanuman the great

monkey-god and the famous devotee. Nabha's

guru asked him to write a biographical history

of the bhaktas ; but Nabha at first excused

himself as being an illiterate person though

finally he composed the Bhaktamal after the

guru had commanded him to do the work.

f P r i y a-d a s of the Madhvl sect who, wrote

a commentary to this work virtually supple-

mented the accounts of bhaktas given in

it. Another commentator of the Bhaktamal

was Lai-das who with the assistance

V a i s n a v-d a s the grandson of Triya-

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78 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

das considerably added to our knowledge of

the bhaktas. Lal-das's commentary is called

the B h a k t a-u r a v a s i. Lai-das, an in-

habitant of Kandhel, was known earlier as

L a k s m a n-d a s, but after accepting the

the discipleship of Valla b ha Lai of the

Radha-vallabhi sect he changed his name.

A third commentator of the Bhaktamali was L a 1 a Gumani-lal (1761) of Rohtak.

R a m-p r a s a d (1864) of Mirpur made a

much simplified version of the Bhaktamal.

Tt has been mentioned before that Nabha's

Bhaktamal does not contain any account of

sddhakas who did not distinguish between

peoples of different religious profession such

as the Hindus and the Mussulmans and it

does not contain any account of Nanak, Daduand Rajjab etc. But fortunately for us there

are, besides Nabha's work,Bhaktamals written

by a number of bhaktas such as R a g h a v-

d a s and others. Many biographical accounts

of bhaktas preserved in maths and places

associated with sadhus, also add to our

knowledge of unorthodox saintly lives.

Kilha the fellow-disciple of Agra-das was

the son of S u m e r-d e v who was the

subedar of Gujarat. Coming to know of himthe wellknown Raja Mansingh had an

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LIBERAL THINKERS 79<

interview with this holy man in Mathura andwas very much astonished at his spiritualelevation.

1 The Khaki sect claim their origin from

Kilha. Members of this sect have thefr

centres in Oudh, Jaipur, Farrukhabad, and

Hanumangar.After giving an account of the less Im-

portant disciples of Ramananda let us turn to

his twelve principal disciples.

Ravi-das was born of cobbler parentsin Benares. According to the Haribhakti-

prakasika he maintained his family by repair-

ing shoes ; but even after his spiritual illumina-

tion by Ramananda's grace he did not give uphis profession. It is said that a sadhu offered

him the 'sparsa-mani- but he declined to

accept it and said that his own small earningand the simple style of living was preferable

to enormous wealth which the 'mam' might

easily bring.

For his spiritual exercises and for the-

service of the sddhus Ravi-das had with great

difficulty caused a math to be built. The

local Brahmans did not like this and complain-

ed to the king that the cobbler Ravi-das was

polluting all in the name of religious life.

The ruler of the land called him to the court

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MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

for administering a rebuke but Ravi-das's

face beaming with a divine love charmed the

Jung immensely and the accusations of the

Brahmans completely failed.

The story goes that the queen J h a 1 ! of

hitore became a disciple of Ravi-das. This

naturally vexed the Brahmans who complain-

ed about this to the king. The king asked

Ravi-das as well as the Brahman clique to

substantiate their claim to be a guru. The

Brahmans, then, began to recite Vedas but the

king was not satisfied with their performanceand Ravi-das who chanted his simple bhajans

won the heart of the king.

There is a legend that at the request of the

queen Jhali Ravi-das was present in a Yajna

{Vedic sacrifice). The Brahmans did not like

this and probably to remind Ravi-das of his

humble birth they said that they would not

-eat anything cooked at the place of the Yajna.

But when after cooking their own food in

different places they all sat down to take their

food they found to their astonishment that

between every two of them one Ravi-das was

taking his meal. That the queen of Chitore

was a disciple of Ravi-das may be said to give

plausibility to the tradition current among the

bhaktas that Mir a-b a I was a disciple of his.

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LIBERAL THINKERS 81

More than thirty among Ravi-das's bhajanswhich are full of divine love and earnest

longing for the Lord, have been included into

the Granth Sahib.

Ravi-das says :

"Ram that has engrossed the attention

of the common people is not the Ramwhich I seek."

''In every object Thou art existing all

the while. It is my fault that I have

not learnt to see Thee with my own

eyes/'

"Tired is my mind after wandering in

His quest. No longer can I continue

in this profitless venture."

"Him, for whose sake I have wandered

far far away, I have discovered at this

moment in my own humble frame."

On the futility of reading the scriptures or

the Vedas as a means of satisfying one's great

longing for God, Ravi-das says :

"The recitation of the Vedic mantras

even for many millions of times will

not satisfy the pangs of that longing."

About the sublime nature of his mystic

communion with God Ravi-das says :

"The"* pure flavour of it is unique and

has neither any origin nor any des-

6

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82 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

traction. It is past and yet not past;it does not decay and it is existent

within every being/'This experience holds before Ravi-das a

new vision of the world. He says :

"Wherever I go I see that Thy adora-

tion is constantly going on."

Ravi-das was ever ready to give service to

others. Whenever any meeting of the sadhus

took place or they all went to any place of

pilgrimage Ravi-das came to serve them.

Young people with whom he was very popular

gave, under Ravi-das's leadership, various

service to others. This naturally displeasedtheir guardians who charged Ravi-das with

spoiling their wards who in course of serving

the people came to lose their orthodox view

of life. While he served others Ravi-das

prayed to God and made obeisance to Him.Some songs which he composed for these

occasions are of unique charm.

Such was Ravi-das of whom the leather-

workers all over India are proud. And they

do not, of course, fail to profess to be followers

of this great saint.

Sena who was a barber by caste received

new life by the grace of Ramananda. Even

after attaining this new life of the bhakta,

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LIBERAL THINKERS 83

Sena continued in his professional work. Theking in whose service Sena was, as soon as helearned about the saintliness of his barber,made him his guru. Sena was an inhabitantof Bandhogar. Even now, Sena's descendantsare revered by the ruling chiefs of the place.In the Granth Sahib there is a Saina bhajanor a bhajan by Sena.

Bhavananda (circa 1400) was a

scholar. By Ramananda's order he wrote the

A m r i t-d h a r which explains for ordinary

people the doctrines of Vedanta in the simpleHindi of his day.

D h a n n a said to have been born in 1415

was a Jath. In his boyhood he received

instruction from a Brahman. Even from that

time he felt that he enjoyed everything as a

loving sharer of God. When Dhanna wanted

more lofty teaching from his Brahman guruhe was asked to go to Ramananda in Benares.

Ramananda gladly accepted Dhanna as his dis-

ciple though the latter was of a humble birth.

Dhanna's peasant comrades asked him,,

how he benefited by turning to bhakti, and

told him that better than bhakti would have

been agriculture which might have brought

in ten times of what he sowed. To this Dhanna

replied, that the field to which he had then

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84 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

turned was giving him a return which was a

thousand times of what he sowed. Three

bhajans in rag Asa and one in rag Dhanasri

composed by Dhanna have been included in

the Granth Sahib.

P I p a (said to have been born in

1425) was a Rajput by birth. He was the

ruler of Gamrohagar in Rajputana. Origi-

nally he was a S a k t a but as he received

from Ramananda the teachings of bhakti he

renounced his kingdom. At the time of his

leaving the palace his queens begged to accom-

pany him. But Pipa refused to take them

along with him. Ramananda however inter-

posed and said that Pipa had no right to refuse

them permission to accompany him if the

queens were ready to renounce their royal

splendour and to follow him in an ordinary

life. On this condition one only was found to

accompany Pipa and that was his youngest

queen S 1 1 a.

There is a story that eager to meet Krisna,

Pipa leaped into sea and met the Lord and

that meeting was attested by a mark in his

body. The custom that obtains in Pipa's

math in Dwaraka of putting the mark of a

seal of Krisna on the body of bhaktas goes back

to this story.

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LIBERAL THINKERS 85

Pipa was very kind to the poor. It is said

that once on his way to Dwaraka he met his

devoted admirer Chidhar or Sridhar Bhakta.

This extremely poor man sold his own dhoti

for offering food to his master. Pipa and his

wife, when they came to know of this, felt

much distressed. Then^ for collecting moneyto relieve the poor man Sita sang and danced

to the accompaniment of her husband's

sdrehgl. This brought in some money which

the saintly couple had the satisfaction of

giving for the relief of the poor bhakta.

In Pipavat which lies on the way to

Dwaraka there is a big math of Pipa. This is

very well-known for its hospitality. There is

one bhajan in Dhanasri rag composed by Pipa,

which has been included into the Granth

Shahib. His songs are very often heard in the

religious festivals of the Sikh sddhus.

Sukhanand was, by nature, a loving

heart with devotional bent of mind. So he

accompanied Ramananda at his renouncement

of Ramanuja's sect. It is believed that Sukha-

nanda's fore-fathers were followers of the

Tantra. This is the reason why his works are

sometimes called the B h a k t i-T an t r a.

He remained constantly engaged in praying to

God. At the bidding of guru he did all sorts

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86 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

of things but at the same time repeated the

name of God always during his work, and the

emotion suffiused his eyes with tears. Thus he

made successive activities his chaplet. Sukha-

nanda's utterances are greatly prized by the

sadhakas.

After his contact with Ramananda,Sur-surananda began a new life and

for realising his ideal unhampered he severed

all connection with the world. His wife (whosename according to the Haribhaktiprakasikawas S u r a s a r i-j I) however wanted to follow

him in his path of spiritual betterment, but

Sur-surananda did not like this and preventedher from doing so. But on her report to the

guru Ramananda, the latter asked Sur-

surananda the reason of his refusal and

suggested that a woman like her who wasdevoted to her husband and had faith in

his ideal could well be made a comrade in

sddhand. Sur-surananda excused that a

young and beautiful woman like her mightinvite danger and worry from the outside.

"You are a man", said Ramananda then, "and

are to give her protection from all sorts of

danger by your manly prowess ;and it would

be sheer unmanliness to leave this responsibi-

lity for somebody else." Hence Sur-sura-

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LIBERAL THINKERS 87

nanda had to go for sddhana accompanied byhis wife. Some scoundrels belonging to the

Mussulman sect tried to molest this saintly

couple but they according to the story were

overpowered by God who assumed a terrible

shape for the protection of his bhakta.

The most important among the disciples

of Ramananda was K a b I r whose superior

spiritual achievements came to have a

sovereign influence on the people o the Indian

Mediaeval times. Kabir's influence, direct or

indirect, on a 1 1 liberal religious movementsthat occurred in the Mediaeval times after him,is uncommonly deep. According to the author

of the K a b i r-k a s a u 1 1 Kabir's death

occurred in 1518. It is said that he was born

in 1398 and lived to his 120th year. Western

scholars accept this date of his demise but not

of birth. Hunter says that Kabir lived

between 1300 and 1420 while according to

B e a 1, Kabir lived till 1490. Some Christian

missionaries accepting the date of Kabir's

death (1518) as given in the Kasauti believed

that he lived between 1440 and 1518. But

Babu S h y a m-s undar Das of the

Nagari Pracharini Sabha has

acquired ail old manuscript of Kabir's sayingssaid to be dated 1504, If the missionaries are

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88 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

to be considered right this manuscript becomes

a contemporary document but on examination

of the text printed from this manuscript one

becomes sceptical about its early date. This

suspicion is corroborated by the evidence of

the Bharat Brahman which gives1398 and 1448 as the date of Kabir's birth anddeath. Dr. F ii h r e r's researches also sup-

port this evidence. In his MonumentalAntiquities and Inscriptions in

the North Western Provinces andO u d h Dr. Fiihrer has described Kabir's

rauza in Khirni in Basti on the river Ami.

This rauza was built by B ij

1 i Khan in

1450 and was repaired by Nawab F i d a I

K h a n in 1567. This testi^es to the genuine-

ness of the account given in the Bharat

Brahman. Immediately after the death

of Kablr, Bijli Khan built a temple on Kabir's

tomb in Magahar, and the rauza men-

tioned above followed two years after. This

shows well how greatly Kabir influenced the

heart of the Mussulman sddhakas.

It is beyond doubt that Kablr was the son

of a Mahomedan weaver (Jola) but the Hindu

writers, such as the author of the Bhaktamftl

,and its several commentaries, tried their best

to conceal this historical fact. That Kablr was

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LIBERAL THINKERS 89'

a Jola finds corroboration in his sayings, andhis name points to his Mahomedan origin.Still to get over these difficulties some Hinduwriters would assert that, though brought up<in a Mahomedan family, Kabir was originallythe son of a Brahman.* There are, besides

these, other Hindu writers less critical who-

would solemnly claim that Kabir being but the

Eternal Spirit embodying truth and clear

vision, was never born of a mortal. The Eter-

nal Being in a sportive mood lay on a lotus in

the lake of Lahar-talao near Benares and a

Jola couple picked him and brought him upas their child.

It is useless to discuss these obvious

absurdities. From records preserved amongthe followers of Dadu (Kabir's disciple) and

the testimony of other documents it is clear

that Kabir was born of Jola parents. Abul

Fazl and the author of the Dabistan too attest

*According to some, Ramananda was not originally willing

to initiate the low born Kabir but the latter managed to plant

himself before the guru's door very early in the morning when

Ramananda stepped out and at the touch of the ,i?ahomedan

weaver uttered 'Rama, Rama' in repugance. This 'Rama, Rama',

Kabir accepted as his mantra and thus ingratiated himself in

Ramananda' s favour. This story is ludicrously absurd; for most

of Ramananda' s disciples were people of humble origin and had

no such story of their first contact with the guru.

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MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

to his Mahomedan origin. In their opinionKabir strictly speaking was not a Mussulmanin his faith but he was a Muwahhid or

.an Unitarian theistic bhakta. Thus Kabir

was doubtless the son of a Mahomedan weaver

but his forefathers were among the early con-

verts from Hinduism to Islam. From the lot

of such converts in general during Mahomedantimes it is to be gathered that conversion did

not improve them intellectually and spiritually.

Illiteracy and want of education still reigned

.supreme among them. It appears that God,

simply to glorify His truth, has reared such a

great personage among persons of a veryhumble rank. The fact is that these peoplewere not at all burdened by the weight of the

traditions of the past, and hence were free to

see for themselves. Kabir got a new conscious-

ness from the teachings of Ramananda which

.gave him initiation of the spiritual life.

Castes, idols, pilgrimage, austerities and out-

ward symbols of religious life he shunned

completely and struck a very hard blow at the

root o"various superstitions. The short extent

of this lecture unfortunately forbids us to

illustrate all these by quotation from his

sayings. Even after his initiation Kabir went

<about meeting bhaktas and wise men of

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LIBERAL THINKERS 91

both Hindu and Mahomedan communities and

having talks with them. He had an intimacywith the Sufis. Among them he had a very

close contact with Shaikh Takki who

belonged to the Suhrawardi branch of the Siifis.

Though initiated into a spiritual life Kabir

was married;the name of his wife was L o I

and the name of his son and daughter was

K a m a 1 and K a m a 1 1 respectively. Kamall

was married to a Brahman husband. The

present day followers of Kabir are not very

willing to admit these facts. Kama! too was

a. bhakta and a man of deep spiritual

experience. He was also a poet of a very high

order. Some stray fragments of his composi-

tion, which are available among sadhns. are

of marvellous beauty. On the death of his

father, Kamal was asked by people to organise

the sect of his fathers followers. He rejected

the idea and said that such an act on his part

would be nothing short of killing the truth

uttered by his father, and the killing of

father's truth would be tantamount to killing

the father himself spiritually. Kainal thus

refused the rank of a parricide. This however

displeased many of Kabir's followers.

"KamaFs birth", they opined, "made an end

of Kabir's line.55

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92 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

These words however are capable of a

different interpretation. Kablr's followers

Dadu, Rajjab and many others were also

married and according to them married life

only was a complete life. This shows that

Kabir had not much respect for a monastic

life which was at best an incomplete life.

Kabir's sayings giving his doctrine be-

came available in later times in two principalrecensions. One of these known as the

V Ija k was made the basis of his sect by

Surat Gopal who established his centre in

Benares. Influenced by the spirit of Benares,

members of this sect gradually showed in-

creased leaning towards scholastic writings,

especially Vedanta literature, and to monastic

life. The famous commentator of the Vijakwas Visvanath Singh the ruler of

Bhagelkhand State, which gave its name to

the commentary.\ D h a r a m-d a s the Bania disciple of

Kabir went to over to Chhattisgar and

established another sect of Kabir. Membersof

^thissect read the master's sayings in that

recension which include, besides the Vijak,

collections like K a b I r-s a g a r and give

importance to the T r ij y a commentary of

the Vijak. Dharam-das was a married man

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LIBERAL THINKERS 93

and assumed his spiritual career with his

wife. In this branch of Kabir's followers

gurus are required to be married men arid are

succeeded by their sons. Their chief mathhas been shifted from Kudarmal (Chhattis-

gar) and is now in Damakhera. Very recently

the last Mahdnta of the math has died without

any male child.

Of the two sects following Kabir the

Chhattisgari sect is more influential. Accord-

ing to the official version of the sect, its

members are more than four millions (42

lacs). Members of the Sura t-G o p a 1 I

sect, mostly to be found attached to the mathin Benares, are very scanty in number.

There is a legend that a quarrel occurred

over Kabir's funeral. For, his chief Hindu

disciple Raja Vir-singh desired to cremate

the master's dead body, while the Mussulman

disciple Bijli Khan thought that burial would

be the proper form of its disposal. But they say

that a miracle made an end of this unseemly

quarrel; for, on lifting the cover of the dead

body only some flowers were found and no

dead body. Half of these flowers were taken

by the Mussulmans to be buried in Magahaiwhile the remaining half was brought over tc

Benares for cremation. It is not clear

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94 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

the quarrel should occur at all; for accordingto the Hindus too sddhakas when dead are not

to be cremated. But the story, however im-

possible, is a homage to Kabir's spirit whichallowed no opportunity of quarrel between

peoples of different communities.

The sayings of Kabir, if put together, will

constitute many volumes. Of course quite a

great part is full of repetition, which may be

original or otherwise. It might be that Kabir

said the same thing on different occasions and

to different persons in different words. Or it

may be that people hearing him have given

slightly altered versions of these sayings. But

besides these written sayings, there are others,

which are very deep in their meaning and are

orally transmitted by successive generations of

sadhus.

Kabir, who liked simple and natural

living, was himself a weaver. He sold in the

market the stuff he produced in his loom, and

with him sddhana did not mean a life divorced

from ordinary physical labour. He alwaysadvocated such labour as would keep a person

outside the charity of another and may at

times give him a chance of offering material

help to others.

Kabir liked that everyone should earn his

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LIBERAL THINKERS 95,

livelihood arid help his fellow-men. Onlyhis earning should not end in hoarding moneyby fair means or foul. He was of opinion that

if the money earned be always kept in circula-

tion by using the same in philanthropic

undertakings that would create no social

disorder. Only when its circulation stops,

money creates in society much misery andv

injustice. Later on Dadu, Kabir's disciple]

adopted these views in organising hisl

B r a h m a-s a m p r a d a y a or the Band of!

the Brahma.

Kabir never accepted the meaninglessformalism either of the Hindu or of the

Mahomedan society. With an uncommonpower he dealt his blows against the false

practices of his times. There is a story that

when on the occasion of the srdddha of

Ramananda, all other disciples of the gurucame to Kabir for milk, he approached the

skeleton of a dead cow and begged for milk.

This strange conduct of Kabir naturally excit-

ing comment, he very humorously remarked

that a dead cow's milk would reasonably be

a fit drink for a dead person.From his boyhood onward he lived in

Benares which according to Hindu belief

brings one salvation as the place of one's

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96 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

death. To show his indifference to such a

belief, some time before his death, he asked

his followers to take him to a place away.from Benares. He was accordingly taken to

Magahar in Basti where he passed away.In the N i r b h a y a-J nan Granth

there is the story of a Mussulman wise man.

Being a globe-trotter of those days he wascalled J a h a n-g a s t (world-traveller).

[Once he came to Kabir's place, but as he sawla pig running about in the courtyard he was

jgoing away in disgust without meeting KaUir,

Kabir marked this and said, "Well, though a

saintly man you still cherish a prejudice

against this poor creature, which indeed is

unclean; but is not our inner nature, too,

unclean at times?" Jahan-gast felt ashamed

of his own conduct.

There is another interesting story, (thoughit may not be historical), in the chronicles of

the Wiaktas. Once on a joint petition from

the Hindus and Mussulmans who felt much

aggrevied at Kabir's extreme heterodoxy the

Emperor Sekandar Shah Lodisummoned him to the court. On his entering

the court Kabir found his accusers, the Hindu

pandits as well as the Mahomedan kazis,

gathered in the complainants' box. This

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L I B E R AO, THINKERS 97

amused him very much, and with a loud

laughter he remarked that excepting some

slight mistake regarding the address thingshave happened all right. This annoyed the

Emperor who demanded an explanation. 'Myobject, Your Majesty/' submitted Kabir, "wasthe uniting of the Hindus and Mussulmans,but nobody would ever admit the possibilityof such a thing. It pleases me to-day to see

that it has become possible. But if it could

have occurred under the throne of an earthly

sovereign like Your Majesty, could not a far

wider place for the purpose have been avail-

able under the throne of the Lord of this

.universe. If it is possible through hatred, is

it not all the more possible through love '( Is

not love more accommodating than hatred?"

The Lodi emperor was ashamed that he

believed in the charge against Kabir and

ordered him to be let off. But curiously

enough according to Ferishta this emperorordered one Brahman to be executed for his

religious difference with the Kazi P i 1 a

Shaikh Bud. The offence of B u d a n,

for that was the name of the Brahman, was

that he said that all religions were equal in the

sight of God.

Kablr's sayings betray deep influence

7

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98 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

from the sects of Gorakhnath, Nath-panth,

Niranjan-panth, Vaisnavism and Brahma-doctrine. The traditional story about Kabir's

discourse with Gorakhnath has possibly been

based on his discourse with a follower

of Gorakhnath. Kabir's discourses with

sddhakas of all sects have been, preserved

among his followers.

Simple speech was a great power with

Kablr. Effusions of his simple heart have

been expressed in a very simple languagewhich was the Hindi of those days. Not

being a scholar he did not care for Sanskrit

and thus he says :

"O Kabir, Sanskrit is the water of

the well, while spoken languages (bhdsd) are

water of the running stream."

With a thirst for discourse and com-

munion with sddhakas of different ideals

Kablr travelled widely over India, and in

places like Puri he stayed for quite a long time.

According to the K a b I r M a n s u r

Kablr met sddhakas of places such as Mecca,

Bagdad, Samarkand and Bokhara. In those

days Bagdad was a famous centre of liberal

ideas.

During his visit to Gujarat Kablr met two

brothers T a 1 1 v a and J I v a on the bank

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LIBERAL THINKERS 99

of the Narmada. There is a very big banian

tree there. It occupies a big island near the

Suklatirtha nearly thirteen miles away from

Baroach on the Narmada. There is a storythat this tree was dead and withered at that

time, but at the touch of Kabir it blossomed

into new life.

Kabir was never prepared to admit that

antiquity in any way guaranteed truth whichwas acceptable to him only after a properexamination. For this purpose he had a

certain method which he has left in his 'words

of test' (parakh-vdnl). Besides these he has

sayings that give rules of conduct, which one

is to follow in striving after spiritual life. For

the guidance of spiritual efforts Kabir has left

his sayings on sadhana and truth. Thesddhaka reaches his final stage in Divine love,

and hence Kabir has his sayings on this love

too. If the time-limit of this lecture did not

stand in our way, we might have given quota-

tions from Kabir's sayings to show their

depth and sweetness. We must be satisfied,

however, with giving here the essence of his

teaching which is as follows :

If you care for truth and spiritual life, get

over all artificial hindrances; be true to yourown self, and be n'atural. For, truth is natural

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100 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

and simple; you need not look for it in the

external world. It is not to be found in vows,

garbs, rituals, pilgrimage and sectarianism.

Truth remains within. One is to find it out

by love, devotion and charity. Do not cherish

ill-will towards any one;do not hurt any one

;

for, God dwells in every creature. The sameGod is earnestly sought after in all religions

which differ only in naming Him. This

makes futile all religious quarrels that go on

between Hindus and Mussulmans and all

other religions ; so give up ego and vanity, and

shun artificiality and untruth, and consider-

ing everyone as your own self, fill up yourheart with Divine love and devotion. Then

your sddhand will be crowned with success.

This life is an ephemeral thing. So without

losing time in vain pursuits seek shelter with

God. You need not seek Him in the external

world; for He is within your heart where youwill find Him easily. Otherwise, you will tire

yourself out by treading the path of the scrip-

tures, holy places, rituals and logic.

Kablr was not for the mortification of the

flesh. He believed that by living a natural

life, in a pure manner, one can carry on one's

sddhand. "The universe/' he says, "is within

one's ownself." So giving up pursuit after

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LIBERAL THINKERS 101

external things one should realise the

universal principle within one's own self; for,

the Lord of the universe exists there. There

will then be no difference between in and out;

for these two have met in the Lord. And the

perfect truth and fulfilment are to be gained

only by uniting with all in spirit.

Besides this Kabir has left many firy

sayings against caste, image-worship andsectarianism. Most of these sayings are

songs; for, this was the favourite form of

preaching with the bhaktas of the Medieval

India. They have expressed themselves in

poetry and music. Kabir was not only a good

composer but a good singer too.

Some of Kablr's followers mutter the nameof God with every breath. The present daychaukd system of the DharamdasI sect

of Kabir's followers reminds one of the

T a n t r i c chakra. Though the chaukd has

in it nothing objectionable yet it is a mere

external formalism. It is likely that the

followers of Kabir, just like the followers of

the Tantra, felt the necessity of a chaukd for

organising a collective form of sddhand. If

people of common ideas do not often meet,

their pursuit of the ideal may tend to growless earnest.

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102 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

Scholars like Macauliffe andT r u m p p have written about BabaN a n a k, and there are among his followers

some who have studied Sikhism and the life

of Nanak. So in this lecture I shall touch onhis life very briefly.

In 1469 Baba Nanak was born in the

village of Talbandi near Lahore. Accordingto some bhaktas, Nanak was then a youngman when he met the old Kabir. On seeinghim Kabir is said to have remarked that he

had no misgivings about the future; for he was

seeing an able man before his leaving the

world. This incident may or may not be true

but Nan'ak was possibly much influenced byKabir's ideas. The central theme of many of

his sayings agrees with the doctrine of Kabir

a number of whose songs have been included

in the Granth Sahib. Nanak' s sayings are in

Hindi with an admixture of Punjabi.

:

Nanak was fond of music and was himself

a composer of songs. His disciple Mardanatoo was a good singer. Accompanied by this

Mardana Nanak travelled extensively. Bagdadwas one of the far away places that he visited.

In the place where Baba Nanak stayed in

pagdad (about 917 A.H.) there is now a holyshrine with a Turkish inscription

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LIBERAL THINKERS 103

to commemorate the event. The descend-

ants of Nanak's disciple of the Saiyad familyare now the overseers of the shrine. All these

facts together with the facsimile of the inscrip-tion have been published in the local Arabic

paper of Bagdad, named the D a r-u 1-

S a 1 a m (9th April, 1919).

According to some authority a collection

of Nanak's sayings in Arabic exists in the

shrine of Nanak in Bagdad. If it proves to

be true he may be called a Sufi as well.

Nanak spoke a great deal against castes,

image-worship and sectarianism. The first

stage in sddhand, according to him, is the

surrender of self in the way of love. Only one

God is to be worshipped to the exclusion of

all artificial things. Nanak says that a search

within one's own self will reveal all sorts of

valuable things. Untruth wears itself off

while truth remains victorious till the end.

The high esteem in which he held womanhood

is revealed in this saying : "Why should youfind fault with one who nourishes in her wombthe leaders of men (kings)/'

Mussulman bhaktas say that Nanak

received instruction in sddhand from a Mussul-

man sddhaka named Saiyad Husain but his

sayings collected in the J a p a jI betray more

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104 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

leaning towards Hinduism than the sayings of

Kabir.

Nine gurus who came in successive genera-

tions that followed Nanak, fully established

the Sikh religion. It was A rju n the sixth

guru who collected the first Granth in 1604.

After adding to this, the sayings of later gurus,

the Granth Sahib was redacted. It has been

mentioned before that this work contains

sayings of Ramananda, Nam-dev, Kabir,

Ravi-das, Pipa, Dhanna, Sena, Shaikh Farid

and others. It contains utterances of Nanak,

Angad, Amar-das, Ram-das, Arjun,

Teg Bahadur and other gurus, and a

dohd of the Guru Govinda. This great

work begins with the Japaji composed by

Nanak. Then follow all the pads (sayings)

arranged according to rags. The same

method of arrangement appears in the

collection of songs or sayings of all the

mediaeval saints such as Dadu, Rajjab and

the like.

It may be mentioned here that the

A n g a b a n d h u, the famous anthology

collected by Rajjab for his guru Dadu, was

finished at least ten years before the writing

of the Granth Sahib.

In the Granth Sahib, after the rags come

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LIBERAL THINKERS lOfr

bhog (offering) and stav (adoration) and dohdor collection of verses.

Every one except the Guru Govinda com-

posed songs in the praise of Nanak. In the-

bhog section there are pads (songs) byT r i 1 o c h a n and J a y a-d e v. The languageof Jaya-dev's pad is Sanskrit with an

admixture of vernacular.

To offer a resistance to the religious

oppression of the Mahomedan emperors the

tenth guru Govinda organised the band of

K h a 1 s a soldiers. (This Khalsa should

however not be confused with the Khalsa of

Dadu). Besides this he left many sayings in

Braj-bhasa and Punjabi. After the demise of

the guru Govinda his sayings were collected

in 1734 by B h a i M a n i Singh. To^

distinguish it from the earlier work of the

same name, it was called the Granth Sahib of

the tenth guru. The contents of this work

are expressive more of heroism and manly

courage than of spiritual attitude.

Malik Muhammad Jaisi has already been

mentioned in the first lecture. But as he was

particularly influenced by Kabir's ideas he-

deserves to be mentioned again in connexion

with the latter saint. Jaisfs Padumavat!

was completed possibly in 1545 though the

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106 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

work might have been commenced in 1518.

The Padumavati expresses the liberal religious

.spirit of the author. This work is much loved

by bhaktas for the spiritual guidance it can

give them. Jaisfs tomb is visited by manypeople even now.

We have already mentioned that the two

principal sects among Kabir's followers are

the Suratgopalis and the Dharamdasis. Of

these the first have their head-quarters in

Benares while the second in Chhattisgar.

Members of this second sect are scattered over

different places such as the Punjab, Sindh,

Gujarat, U.P., Bihar, Nepal, Sikim, and

other Himalayan tracts as well as places

outside India. The popularity of this sect is

due to its humanism and comparative freedom

from the bondage of written tradition.

Dharamdas was born in Bangdhogar.

According to bhaktas the date of his birth is

near about 1443. But on accepting the

testimony of the Bharat-Brahman about his

birth, this date will land us in the absurdity

of finding him five years old at Kabir's death

the date of which is not disputed.

From his boyhood onward Dharam-das

was a devoted worshipper of God but in

material images. It is said that in his youth

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LIBERAL THINKERS 107

he once went to Muttra where he met Kabirwho dispelled Dharam-das's wrong ideas of

God and made him settle in the love anddevotion of the Supreme God. The conver-

sation of the two has been recorded in a worknamed the A m a r-s u k h-n i d h a n. But

according to the Ghat RamayanKabir met Dharam-das again in Benares

where he convinced the latter about the

futility of image-worship.

Along with Dharam-das his wife and the

eldest son C h u r a m a n i-d a s also ac-

cepted the teachings of Kabir. Dharam-das

was a wealthy merchant; giving away his

riches he entered his spiritual career.

After Dharam-das's death N a r a y a n

-and Churamani-das became one after the other

the chiefs of the sect. Though gurus they

were married persons and were succeeded bytheir sons. So their sects are known as

hereditary. All these have been mentioned

before. The death of Dayaram Sahibthe last guru of this sect has brought the sect

into great difficulties; for, he has left no issue.

Besides the two principal ones there are

other sects of Kabir. Of these the sect led byB h a g g u is to be found at Dhanauli in

Tirhut (Bihar) and the math of the sect led

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108 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

by Jaggu is in Cuttack (Orissa). TheJ n a n I sect has its head-quarters at Majhninear Sasaram (Bihar), while the T a k s a r i

set is in Baroda. Nityanand,Kamalanand and Chaturbhujwere ordered by Kabir to go for sddhand to-

the Dravir country which was the native-

place of the Bhakti cult. It is not knownwhether they left any sect behind them.

Pandit Sudhakar Dvivedi wasof opinion that D a d u was born of muchi

(shoe-maker) parents in Kasi (Benares). Ac-

cording to a different authority he was bora

in Ahmedabad (Gujarat). And his followers

seek to prove that he was born of NagarBrahman parents. It appears from his

writings that he was a cotton-carder by pro-

fession. This information is strongly corro-

borated by many works such as the J I v a n-

p a r i c h i (by Jana-Gopal) and the writings

of T eja n a n d. According to these docu-

ments Dadu was a cotton carder of the*

Mussulman class. At his time there were

Hindu cotton-carders also, and the Mussulman'

cotton-carders were their converted brothers.

Even after their conversion the cotton-carders

remained superstitious owing to their want of

education a drawback inherited from the

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LIBERAL THINKERS 109

past. But, by his genius, sadhana and asso-

ciation with saintly people, Dadu got over this

difficult situation and developed an uncommonvision. He was quite unhampered by anyburden of the past.

Dadu's earlier name was D a ii d and the

name of his wife was H a w a (Eve). He hadtwo sons; G a r i b-d a s and Mask! n-d a s,

and two daughters, N a n i-b a I and M a t a-

b a i. Born in 1544 Dadu died in 1603 in

Narana (Rajputana) where the chief math of

his followers is situated.

f Dadu had the ambition of uniting Hindusand Mussulmans as well as followers of other

creeds by means of a broad ideal of fellowship.With this end in view he established his

Brahma or Para-brahma Sampradaya (society).

Dadu's sayings are equally deep and broad.

And in these he has often paid homage to

Kabir's greatness.

Dadu who gave a high place to self-reali-

sation had no respect for the sastras. To give

up vanity and to surrenderer to the One Godand to look upon all people as one's ownbrothers and sisters was his instruction. Ac-

cording to him the shrine of God was within

one's own self where one could meet Him only

through love. One should seek union with

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110 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

God through love. To make one's approachto God more intimate, instead of asking for

anything from Him one should direct one's

service in the course of God's service to His-

own creation.

Truth, which is invincible cannot be con-

cealed in this life. After giving up impurityand evil nature one should surrender oneself

to the Divine will. This leads to union (Yoga).One should be humble, kind, free from vanity,

eager for serving others and at the same time

fearless, energetic and brave. Sectarian pre-

judice should be shunned,

f Pilgrimage, observance of vows, worshipof images, rituals etc. are all in vain. Oneshould be tolerant to all sorts of oppositionand have a strong faith in God.

According to Dadu the acquisition of a

guru (spiritual guide) makes sddhand easy.

He believed strongly in the S a h aj a (natural

or simple) method. His prayers are very

sweet, and deep in meaning. He was, as wesaw before, a house-holder and liked that

others too should strive for higher life from

that state.

Sayings of Dadu have been collected byhis disciples Jagannath and this collec-

tion is known under the name 'Harare

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LIBERAL THINKERS 111

V a n f . Another disciple, Rajjab, collected

his writings and divided them into 37 angasand 27 rags. This collection goes by the

name of the A n g a b a n d h u. There is

also another work by name of the Kayaveliin which also there are sayings of Dadu.

By order of Dadu, his disciples collected

the writings of sadhus of different sects. Onesuch collection is available with the Sadhu6 a n k a r-d a s, and it was used by his guruand contains writings of sixty-eight bhaktas

among whom there are many Mussulman

names, such as Garibdas, Kazi Kadam,Shaikh Farid, JBakhna, Eajjab and

others. Though the Granth Sahib contains

only one pad of Ramananda this collection

contains no less than three of his pads.Besides this, there are other such collections

e.g. the Sarvangi by Rajjab and the

G u n a g a n ja-n a m a by Jagannath. Both

are unique collection of sayings of Indian

sadhakas.

Many of Dadu's disciples, such as Rajjab,

Bakhna and Wazind Khan and others

first belonged to Islam.

With Akbar the Great, Dadu had a dis-

cussion for forty days. The story goes thai

just after this Akbar removed his own name

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112 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

from his coins and in its stead printed Jalla

Juldluhu on their one side and "Alldhu

Akbar" on the reverse.

The following is a list of principal dis-

ciples of Dadu :

1. Jag-jIvan of Dyausa. 2. Sundar-das

(Senior) was a prince of Bikanir. 3. Sundar-

das (Junior) born in Dyausa, was a poet.

4. K s e t r a-d as. 5. Raj jab poet and

sadhaka, his place was in Sanganer and

Fatehpur. 6. Garib-das the eldest son of

Dadu. 7. Jaisa. 8. Madho-das of Gular,

Jodhpur. 9. Prayag-das Bihani, lived mostlyin Didwana and Fatehpur. 10. Bakhna. 11.

B a n w a r i-d a s leader of the Uttaradhi

sect. 12. Sarikar-das Bushera, Jodhpur. 13.

M o h a n lived often in Sanganer. 14.

Maskm-das the youngest son of Dadu. 15.

Jan-gopal his math is in Andhigram,

Sekhavati, Jaipur. 16. Jagannath constant

companion of Dadu and was the compiler of

the Gunaganjanama. 17. H a r i-d a s of the

Nirafijan sect. 18. N i s c a 1-d a s turned a

Vedantin later on. Each of these bhaktas was

an outstanding personality.

Dadu's followers include many Hindus

^s well, though among the leaders of his sect

there are many born Mussulmans. Even

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LIBERAL THINKERS 113

now, in the branch of Dadu's sect which

developed under the guidance of Rajjab the

place of a guru (spiritual leader) is accordedto one who is great in his spiritual achieve-

ment, and no one questions his Hindu or

Mussulman birth. At Sikar, Sekhavati, Kal-

daira, Bhiwam Malsisar in Jaypur state,

at Churi in Khetri and at Narnaul in Patiala

there are many followers and monasteries oi

Rajjab. Many of the sddhus of this sect have

now become ascetics and a few of them are

householders and are styled as Pandits.

Lack of time prevents quoting extensivelyfrom Raj jab's sayings; only a few are givenhere.

4

'Within our own selves is that lamp whichwill dispel the darkness that surrounds us/'

"Can your dry asceticism vanquish the

enemy that is within yourself or get any light

for you?""In the mosque of life complete your

namdz and salutation. It is the mind that

often brings in there many distractions, so

turn out the fitful mind, this kafir, from this

peaceful place of worship."

"Complete your spiritual experience by

developing the different sides of your life and

character. The effort for spiritual experience,

8

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114 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

which in order to develop one or two aspectsof life, kills all the rest is to be compared with

the conduct of cats or tigers which to rear upone or two strong offsprings feed them with all

the rest. The efforts of any one who developshis kindness at the cost of manliness is of the

strangest kind. For it is the heroes who are

commissioned to create, it is a privilege, a

power which is not given to the cowards/'"There are as many sects as there are men.

Such is the creation of the Providence endowedwith a variety. The worship of different sects,

which are like so many small streams, are

moving together to meet God (Hari) who is

like the ocean."

"The Ganges has come out of the feet of

Narayan (God). If in the heart of everydevotee there are His feet, then the streams of

ideas coming out from the heart of different

devotees, are so many Ganges. The supremely

holy water where all these Ganges meet can

give spiritual freedom to one who bathes in

it."

"Every drop of water has the call of the

sea towards which it cannot start alone ;for in

that case it will dry up in the way. The holystream which is formed from these dropsovercomes the obstacles and dryness of the

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LIBERAL THINKERS 115

way. So bring together different streams of

world's ideas and do away with poverty/'"All the world is the Vedas and the entire

creation is the Koran. Vain are efforts of the

Pandit and the Kdzi who consider a mass of

dry papers to be their complete world."

"The heart of the sadhaka is the real paperwhere are written all truths in the shiningoletters of life. The great human world which.consists of all such hearts is resplendent wiffi

the light of the complete Vedas and the Koran.Remove the obstacles of artificiality and read

[the truth of that world. Many are the readers

of the lifeless letters written on equally lifeless

paper. Read, Rajjab if you are at all to read,

the gospel which is revealed in all the lives."

The poet Sundar-das had five principal

disciples. S y a m-d as, D a m o d a r-d a s,

D a y a 1-d a s, N i r m a 1-d a s and

N a r a y a n-d a s. And among their fol-

lowers we find many great leaders of thought

and ideal.

(Kabir's teachings were no longer confined

to Eastern India and through Rajputana,

Punjab and Sindh they gradually reached

Kathiawar and Gujarat. By the time KaUir's

teachings reached Gujarat there had already

developed among his followers twelve different

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116 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

sects such as S a t y a-k a b 1 r, N a m-k a b I r,

Dan-kabir, Manga 1-kabir, Hangs a-

k a b I r, U d a- or U d a s I-k a b I r etc. Of

these the Satya- or Satkabir sect whichflourished in Gujarat retained much of its

original liberal views, while Uda sect insist-

ed too much on their own rules of ceremonial

purity. The latter would never use utensils andkitchen used by men other than of their ownsect. They would not make an exceptioneven in case of people of their own caste or

of castes known to be superior to their own.

Utensils or objects or water touched by the

latter cannot be used by the Uda sect whocount among the followers of Kabir.

In Surat, Baroach, Baroda and Chhota

Udaipur there are many of this sect, whose

children, due to this fear of polluting touch

of others, cannot educate themselves in anyschool. It is a pity that they have lost the

great ideal of Kabir and have satisfaction in

practising a perverted sort of purity which is

irrationally afraid of other peoples' touch.

Bhan Sahib (circa 1700-1755) wasthe leader of that sect of Kabir which was

working in Kathiawar with his living ideas

and liberal views. He was a Lohana by birth

and migrated from Kankhilor to Varahi. His

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LIBERAL THINKERS 117

father's name was K a 1 y a n and mother's

A m b a and he belonged to the Satkablr sect.

According to Baba Mohan-das, Bhan was the

disciple of Laularigrl, a follower of Kablr.

Ambo Chhatto was another discipleof this master, and the followers of AmboChhatto still exist in Dudhrej. Chief amongBhan's disciples were K u n w a r, Ravi-das,S y a m-d as, S a n k a r-d a s, M a d h a v-

das, Chara n-d as, D a y a 1-d a s, G a r i b-

d a s, and K r i s n a-d a s. Bhan Sahib's

son was K s e m-d a s who was famous for his

spiritual attainments.

But most advanced spiritually were

Bhan's disciples J i v a n-d a s and T r i k a m-d a s who came from untouchable classes.

Bhan had a very high opinion of these, and

he said that with these disciples he would

remove the miseries of his people and conquerthe darkness of their heart. For this reason

his followers were nicknamed as the 'Army of

Bhan'.

Ravi Sahib, another disciple of Bhan,

met the master in the house of one of his

creditors and found new light and life from

his religious teachings. Ravi Sahib's disciple

was Morar who preached in Khambalia,

Kathiawar three miles from Vanthali station

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118 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

in Junagar Railway. This place is visited bypilgrims of the sect. The place of E a t a n-

d a s another disciple of Eavi Sahib is in

Bankaner. There are many of his followers

mostly of mason caste. They generally visit

the math of the Rabadis and Bharwadsin Dudhrej near Wadhwan. There are other

maths of this sect in Bagad, Malia in Shahpur,and Dhrangdhra.

According to many, B h I m-b h a k a t

was the disciple of Bhan. The disciple Ovf the

latter was J I v a n-d a s who came fromthe Dher (tanner and sweeper) caste. His

place was Ghogha-badar near Gondal. Thereservoir of water in which he put hides in

tanning them is held sacred by his followers.

Jivan had a disciple named P r e m-d a s

who was Karia (mason) by birth.

Every night he walked ten miles to listen

to the words of his master, which were about

God, His love and our love towards Him.

On being offered a boon by the master Prein-

das asked for piety and love of God. But the

guru pointing out that Prem-das has already

had these two things the latter told whatever

master was pleased to give might be given.

"I am childless/' said the guru, "and

hence my sddhand will go to the posterity

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LIBERAL THINKERS 119

through your line." Prem-das had then a

daughter, and a son was born to him after-

wards and the latter was the forefather of the

present gurus of the sect.

Dev-para in Gondal 'state is the place of

another J I v a n-d a s named B h aj a n i a,

or the singer of hymns.The tanner Jivan-das had a disciple named

A rju n-d a s a Rajput. He too was an

able sddhaka. Songs of these two are very

popular among the bhaktas, and people of the

locality sing them with utmost devotion.

In Bhawnagar in Kathiawar there are

many followers of Kabir. But they mostly

belong to the local sects.

This in brief is the ramification Kabir's

school. But through Dadu and other disciples

the influence of Kabir spread in different parts

of Northern India.

Another of Kabir's disciple, J ii a n i-

d a s, was the source of a few sects. Of these

the M a r g I sect of Kathiawar says that the

true sddhand consists in ever being in the

path of sddhand and there is no such thing as

its cessation.

The M u 1-p a n t h I sect was started bySahib-das. The Baba-lal sect is existent

in Punjab and Malwa its followers owe debt

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120 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

to Kabir. Dara Sikoh's interview with Baba-lal the promoter of this sect will be taken uplater on. The S a d h sect exists in Farrukhabad and in it Kabir's method of sddhana

is followed.

In addition to these, Kabir has inspired

many more sects, such as the Satnaml of

Jag-j Ivan, S i b-n a ra y a n i s of Gazipur,and C h a r a n-d a s i s, P a 1 1 u-s a h i-

b I s, M a 1 u k-d a s I s, P r a n-n a t h I s

and D a r i a-S a h i b I s. These sects will

be dealt with later on in their proper places.

We shall now take up some pre-Kabir sects of

North-Eastern India.

The Nath and the Niranjan cults were

prevalent in Bengal and Orissa long before

Kabir flourished. The Mahimapanthand the Kumbhipatia sect were

founded later. Mukunda-dev was the founder

of the latter sect which neither accepts

the idol and its temple nor the sanctity of any

particular caste. They are against the rule of

the priest class (Brahmans). Their dislike of

the idol is so great that they are known to. have

once made an attempt to demolish the famous

temple of Jagannath in Orissa, Though manyof their tenets resemble those of Kabir or

other sddhakas of Northern India it would be

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LIBERAL THINKERS 121

wrong to assume any influence of the latter

upon them.

The A n a n t a-k u 1 1 sect of Orissa

does not recognize the institution of caste.

They may marry women of any caste and take

their meals with any one sitting in the samei row with them.

Bind u-d h a r I s of Orissa observe no

caste in the path of spiritual quest. They mayaccept discipleship of a guru from any caste.

What they care for in a guru is his spiritual

wealth.,

On sects like the K h u s i-v i s v a s I,

S a h i b-d h a n i, J a g a-m o h a n I, B a 1 a-

r a m i, N e r a, S a h aj

i a, A u 1, B a u 1,

Darwesh, Shain, Sam jog I, Jadu-

patia and Kartabhaja etc., there

have been influences of various kinds.

A great many of these came from the

Sahaj, Nath and Mranjan cults of Bengal

and Magadha; and a portion from Islamic

sources. Besides these, it is not unlikely that

S teachings of Kabir, Dadu and others of

iNorthern India have exercised some influence

Jon these cults of Bengal. Their history has

been told by the late Akshay-kumarDuttinhisBharatvar siyaUpasak-Sampraday or The Religi-

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122 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

ous Sects of India and hence it is not neces-

.sary to speak anything of them here exceptthe important fact that they recognize no

-caste, idol or scripture, and the communal idea

is the most remote from them.

The early Sufis of Sindh have been

treated before and hence need not be repeated.But this does not preclude us from treating the

neo-Sufism which the Hindus and Mussulmansof U.P. and Delhi have built up. About 1600

there was in Delhi Bawri Sahib, a Sufi

sadhaka, who had a disciple named B i r u

Sahib. This latter was a Hindu by birth andhad for his disciple the Sufi Yari Shahwho flourished possibly between 1668 and

1725. Though a Mussulman by birth Yari

Shah's sayings contain, along with the name.of Allah, the names of Ram, Hari and tenets

like those of Dehatattva and 8unya-tattvawhich are connected with deep philosophical

views of Hinduism; for he had none of that

narrowness which may commonly be found in

some Hindus or Mussulmans. In his songs

we have reference to the dust of guru's feet to

be applied as collyrium. Besides this, there

,are other beautiful expressions. "Creation,"

he says, "is a writing on the scroll of the in-

finite space (sunya] with love as His pen. He

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LIBERAL THINKERS 123

who has not perceived this rasa within him-

self can scarcely be made to understand it bymeans of reasoning. Man is a bubble in the

ocean of the Infinity/5

Yari had disciples named B u 1 1 a

Sahib, Shekhan Shah, HashtMuhammad Shah and K e s a v-d a s.

The last named flourished between 1693 and1768. Kesav-das's sayings called the

A m i-g h u t or the Nectarine Drink is

much loved by the sddhakas. He received the

"ajap (V mantra from his master Yari andconsidered himself blessed. This opened uphis spiritual vision through which saw this

world in a novel fashion. 'The rasa" says

Kesav, "that is longed for by crores of Brahmaand Visnu, I cannot contain within myself.

My eyes have opened unto God in His own

form, and the wealth of beauty that I now see is

too vast to be contained by this world."

"Sddhand means to make an end of all doubts

,and hesitation and lay oneself prostrate at the

ifeet of God/ 5 Another of Yari's disciples, Bulla

Sahib, was a Kunbi or cultivator by birth and

was a contemporary of KeSav-das. First, he

was a servant in the agricultural farm of

G u 1 a 1 Sahib who later turned his disciple.

Coming to know that Bulla lost himself in

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124 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

meditation while doing his work in the field,

Gulal became much displeased. One day he

came to verify this account and found that

Bulla was ploughing the field as usual, thoughhis attention was fixed to another world. Per-

ceiving later on, the presence of his employer,Bulla said, "you are the master of my body andit is doing its work, but my soul is with her

Lord." This made Gulal ashamed of his ownconduct and the example of the Divine love and

piety which he gradually witnessed in Bulla

made him accept the discipleship of the latter.

Bulla's many compositions, such as prayers,adoration of the Brahman, the description of

the enjoyment of the Limitless One, and playof the liberation, are marvellous. From his

writings we know that a Brahman mendi-

cant from the East came to his courtyard and

made him intoxicated with the joy of the Abso-

lute and with songs on the Infinite which the

latter realised through the Sahaja doctrine and

sung in his worship of the ultimate truth.

There is a math in Bhurkura in Gazipurin the place of his sadhana.

Gulal, the disciple of Bulla was of the

same age as his guru, but he died earlier.

Born in a zamindar family of the Chhatri

caste Gulal was a rich man and was the owner

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LIBERAL THINKERS 125

of Basahari Taluq in Gazipur. Though heremained a householder to the end, he gave upall pride in birth and position on the attain-

ment of his spiritual ife. His sayings especial-

ly those containing an account of his own

spiritual awakening, are very deep and sweet.

His prayers and songs on the Divine love are

soul-entrancing.

Besides these, his other sayings composedin the form of drati, rekhtd, holi, vasanta are

extremely popular. He has a very well-written

account of the Brahma-yoga.Another disciple of Bulla was J a g-

jI v a n Sahib. He wrote his J n a n-

p r a k a s in 1761 . Sir George Griersonput his birth in 1682. (One Jagjivan considered

himself to be a follower of Kabir).He was Chandel Chhatri by caste and was

born in the village of Sardaha in the district

of Barabanki. He met Bulla while a boy and

expressed a desire to be his disciple. As

Bulla did not believe in any formal kind oi

initiation by muttering a mantra in the

would be discipFs ear, nothing of that kind

occurred; still his favour and potent touch

changed Jag-jIvan's course of life. His sou!

awakened. The sect which Jag- jIvan startec

is called Satyanami or Satnami. His fellow

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126 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

villagers going against his ways, he left his

own house and removed to Kotwa two miles

off from it.

He continued a householder up to the endand his daughter was married to the son of

the ruling chief of Gonda.

Jag- j Ivan's Jnana-prakas, P r a t h a m-

g r a n t h and A g a m-p a d d h a t i are

teachings in the form of a dialogue between

the mythical divinities Siva and his consort

Parvati. Besides these, he has other works,such as the P r e m-g r a n t h (the Bookof Love) the Mahaprala y-g r a n t hthe Book of the Great Annihilation). In

the first of these are his prayers anddiscussions of sddhana and in the second

description of the true devotee and the true

devotion.

According to him the best sadhand is to

attain the grace of God, and he preached the

value of moral and simple life.

Knowing full well that he ran the risk of

being called a visionary, he exhorted the

Hindus and the Mussulmans to unite in love

and spiritual efforts.

D u 1 a m-d as, J a 1 a 1 i-d a s and Devi-das were Jag-j

Ivan's disciples. They have

some beautiful sayings. Like Kablr Jag-

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LIBERAL THINKERS 127'

jlvan too had some sayings which are riddles.

His prayers are many in number.

Jag-jIvan had among his followers manymembers of low castes as well as some

Mahomedans.

Dulam-das, a disciple of his, hailed from

the district of Rai Bareilly and his songs on

purity, sddhand, Divine love and grace as well

as the philosophy of dtman are very deep.

Previous to the rise of this Satnami sect

of Jag-jIvan there was another religious sect

of the same name which stood against

Aurangzeb (1672). They traced their origin

to Ravi-das and called themselves sddhs

(= sadhus). This sect was again reorganized

in 1750.

The sadh sect of V I r B h a n was

founded in 1658. Many of his teaching are

similar to those of Kablr and Dadu. His sayings

have been collected under the title of the Adiu p a d e s a probably in imitation of the

A d i g r a n t h of the Sikhs. It is divided

into two parts : Sabad and 8dkhi. Vir Bhan's

guru was a person who attained perfection in

the realisation of the Brahman.

Between 1825 and 1830, a bhakta of

Chamar class founded a new sect named

Satnami, which became very powerful'

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128 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

in the Chhattishgar area and consisted of

members of the Chamar class. These latter

are mostly agricultural labourers. The centre

of this sect is in Girod in Raipur district;

formerly Girod was in Bilaspur district. In

.the census of 1901 their number was reckoned

as four hundred thousand. Like the Satnamis

of Jag- jIvan they avoid brinjal and have

nothing to do with images and idols. TheBrahman's superiority is also rejected bythem. Though Chamar themselves, they do

not recognize people of so-called higher castes

.as their superiors. According to them real

superiority consists of character, devotion and

purity of conduct.

An account of the sadhakas of Chamar'Class remains incomplete if we omit the name>of L a 1-b e g or L a 1-g i r who call themselves

Alakhnami or Alak h-g i r. 'Gir' at

(the end of their name is to be compared with

<the 'Giri' of the famous ten classes of

sannyasis created by Sankara. According to

the Alakh-girs their sect is older than that of

Tulsidas and they have a great influence in

Bikaner. They do not worship any imageand they meditate on the unseen Divinity andstrive to realise Him in their lives. To themdharma consists in avoidance of injury to

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LIBERAL THINKERS 129

others, giving of gifts and keeping oneself

pure. According to them one can attain

perfect joy even in this world if one will be

in the path of sddhand quite forgetful of the

next world. Thought of heaven or hell is

fruitless, for these two things are within one's

own self. One must realise by his sddliand

the infinite future in the living present. To

enjoy complete bliss in this world by meansof the sddhand should be the principal objectof human existence. Members of this sect do

not admit the superiority of the so-called

upper castes. In this respect they are quitelike the Kumbhipatias of Orissa, who, are not

a very old sect. In reply to their want of

admittance to temples they say that by enter-

ing into mean places like temples one is likely

to fall from truth. Sddhus of this sect wear

a cap and an apron made of some thick stuff,

and greet each other by saying Alakh Kaho'utter the name of the Unseen One'. They ask

for alms in a very quiet manner and even

nothing being offered they silently retire.

(They are respected by people as pure Yogis of

calm nature. According to them, helping

others in thought, speech, service and moneyand in every other manner should be the duty;

of everyone.

9

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130 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

The members of this sect, living in North-

Western India, believe their guru Lai-beg to

be an incarnation of Siva. They hate to be led

by temptation for heaven or any future bliss,

and their ideal is to realise a complete bliss

in this very existence through purity, calmness

and concentration of the mind. To them the

present is the best part of time and their

sddhand aims at drinking the full cup of the

present wherein the juice of great joy crushed

out of Eternity will accumulate.

In about 1720 B h i k h a was born in a

respectable Brahman family in the village of

Khanpur Bohana (Azamgar). Spiritual thirst

drove him to Benares, but failing to quenchit there he went to Gulal Sahib of whom he

heard in the end. With the full knowledge of

the fact that Gulal was initiated in the lines

of guru born in a Mahomedan family Bhikha

received initiation from him. All this welearn from his own writings. Gulal stayed in

Bhurkura where Bulla attained his spiritual

perfection. After the passing away of the guruBhikha too remained there till his death and

preached to the public.

Bhikha's desciple was G o v i n d a

Sahib who was an inhabitant of Ahirauli

in Faizabad. Govinda's disciple was P a 1 1 u

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LIBERAL THINKERS 131

Sahib. In the districts of Gazipur andBalia there are many earnest followers of

Bhikha. According to Bhikha the scripturesare useless and sddhand consists only of love.

He says that leaving aside his pride, the

sddhaka should be natural and simple throughlove, and unite himself with the universe.

The entire creation is full of ideas; the dayon which one realises the truth it reveals a

beauty that is everywhere. On that day one

feels no difference among things, and beingfree from a conflict between 'within' and

'without', life meets its fulfilment. His

prayers and words of repentance are also verybeautiful.

To some, Paltu (c. 1757-1825) the disciple

of (Jay a) Govinda was a second Kablr ;

for his ideas have some fundamental similaritywith those of Kablr. Paltu was born in a

Bania family in the village Nagpur-Jalalpurin Faizabad. He was a house-holder and his

descendants still live in that very village. His

co-villagers troubled and annoyed him all

through life. From his writings we get some

very interesting facts about the society of the

time. There were at that time many vaga-

bonds who turned sannydsis for the sake of

their livelihood and some of them very success-

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132 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISMI

fully exploited the people. Paltu's poems in

kundaliyd metre are very much appreciated.

Some of Paltu's sayings are as follows :

"High caste people have spoilt the low

caste ones and have spoilt themselves in

consequence/'"One who has seen the truth has this

world for his own country.""The truth which we see within ourselves

is greater than the truth we see with our eyes/'

"The sddhaka like a hero should have

control over his passions/'

"God is not the property of any particular

sect/'

"Do not make yourself known by your,

caste or creed, for that will lead to narrow-

ness/'

"Be amiable and adopt the spirit of

service."

"No one can realise the truth unless he

makes himself natural."

"Truth is within one's own self; to look for

it in the out-side is in vain."

"One who does not see the Divinity in

humanity banishes the Divinity from the

natural temple."Paltu has many followers and all over

India there are people who belong to his sect.

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LIBERAL THINKERS 133

Though D a r i a Sahib did not makehimself known as one of the Satnamis he

called God by the name of the Truth (Salya-

nama). Hence it would be proper to narrate his

history just after that of the Satnamis as well

as of bJiaktas following Jag-jivan.

A branch of the Ksatriya princes of Ujjain

came to Jagadispur near Buxar and ruled a

small kingdom there. The devotee and

sddhaka Piran Shah was born in their

line. According to Pandit Sudhakar Dvi-

vedi, Piran Shah who was born in the line

of Ksatriya princes embraced Islam for savinghis brothers from the wrath of the MussulmanSultan. But Piran's followers will not admit

this. In a book called the J n a n-d I p a k

his son Daria Sahib has left some autobio-

graphical touches but we do not have the

above story there. Daria was born in his

maternal uncle's house in Dharkandha seven

miles off from Dumraon in the district of

Arrah. He passed away in 1780 and was in

all likelihood born in the neighbourhood of

1700. His mother was born in a tailor's family.

From a study of the available data about

his history it appears that Sufism attracted

Piran Shah and was the cause of his name.His son, however, was profoundly influenced

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134 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

by Kabir. Daria Sahib married early and

while still a young man he showed his spirit

of devotion. At the age of thirty he began to

preach. Like Mahomedans Daria's followers

sometimes offer their prayer to Godln a stand-

ing posture and they call it kornish. Prayerswhich they offer sitting as the Mahomedansdo, are called sirdd or sizdd. They neither

obey any written scripture nor observe anyvow (vrata), traditional custom or formalities;

nor do they wear any special costume, mutter

any mantra and make pilgrimage to anyparticular place. Drinking, killing any life

and eating meat and fish are forbidden to

them. The sddhus of this sect use a special

kind of water-vessel called kamandalu or

bharukd which resembles the badnd of the

Mahomedans. Thev have four centres :V

Mirzapur in Chapra, Muzaffarpur, Manuwa-

chawki, Dansi and Telpa.14

Daria had thirty-six principal disciples

among whom D i 1-d a s was the ablest. At

times Daria Sahib went to Benares, Hardi in

Arrah, and Baisi in Gazipur, and Magahar in

Basti which was the place where Kabir passed

away.15 Places associated with Kabir's life

were very dear to him but he never said

anything to raise them to the status of holy

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LIBERAL THINKERS 135

places. Saints and devotees of Daria's sect

still speak of love, and unity of sddhand

between the Hindu and the Mussulman.The Jnan-dipak is the most cherished

book of this sect. It contains beautiful songsof classical modes such as vasanta, holi,

malldr and behdy. For Daria like all other

mystics of the Indian Mediaeval period was a

lover of music. He has also left some verybeautiful prayers and songs of adoration

(vandand}.

v- The history of Daria Sahib of Bihar

should be followed by that of his namesake in

Marwar. They both were contemporaries.

According to his own testimony the latter was

born of a (Mussulman) cotton-carder family.

He lived between 1676-1758. After his father's

death he was brought up in the house of his

maternal grandfather K a m I r. Kamir lived

in the village of Rain in Merta and was a

disciple of P r e m-d a s of the village of

Khiansar in Bikanir.

The chief disciple of Daria Sahib Marwari

was S u k h r a m-d a s who was a blacksmith

and manufactured iron chains. It is said that

Bakht Singh, the Maharaja of Marwar,

was cured of his illness after listening to the

ministrations of Sukh-ram.

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136 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

Many consider this second Daria to be the

incarnation of Dadu. The reason 1 of this is

probably the fact that his writings are greatlyinfluenced by Dadu and are divided into

angas (chapters) like those of the latter. ButDaria has only fifteen angas while Dadu has

no less than thirty-seven; most of Daria's

angas possess names similar to those that

occur in the Dadu's works. In Rajputanathere are many bhaktas who are followers of

Daria, and maths of his sect, places sanctified

by the personal connection of saints of this

line are widely scattered. Daria's followers

use terms like Ram, Para-Brahma and in the

chapter B r a h m a-p a r i c h a y a', i.e. on

the Access to the Brahman, of the work of

Daria Sahib we have deep ideas of Yoga.

They recognize sannyasi (mendicant) sddhus-

as well as those who are house-holders. ^Besides S a d n a, the butcher-saint of

Sindh, there was another of his namesake born

in Benares in the seventeenth century. Someconsider the two as identical. Sadna had a

leaning towards Vaisnavism and was in touch

with Ramananda's school which had no faith

in the Vedas, holy places and images, anddenied that superiority can be attained

through birth. This sect was in later times

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LIBERAL THINKERS 137

greatly influenced by sects of Kabir and of

Dadu. Their great ideal was to control senses

and to attain peace, a balanced attitude and

harmony of life.

v Towards the close of the sixteenth century

Lai-das was born in Rajputana among the

Meos who were a notoriously predatory tribe.

The majority of his followers are Meos whohave a math in the place of his birth. Theypractice japa and klrtan and Lal-das's sayings

bear marks of Dadu's influence. Kabir too has

considerable influence on him and some of

Lal-das's sayings are strikingly similar to his.

In 1656 Dharani-das was born in

the village of Majhi in Chapra in a Srivastava

Kayastha family. His father was a farmer,

but Dharam-das himself was a dewan of the

local zamindar.

After coming into touch with the mysticnamed Sevananda, his spiritual vision

unfolded. He turned a recluse and began to'

live very humbly in a cottage in his native

village. His two works the S a t y a-

p r a k a s and the P r e m-p r a k a s are

very full of Kabir's ideas, and his aratis and

prayers are greatly admired by the sddhus.

Dharani-das says, "Work has value, because*

it is a means to realise the ideal within, in the

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138 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

external world. One Khudd (God) pervadesthe entire creation, human and otherwise. TheLord of one's heart does not live in a far-off

region, but without any pain of longing one

dose not obtain his view/'

He has repeatedly emphasised the worth-

lessness of external things like austerities and

pilgrimage. He said : "In one's life one mustfeel the pangs of love and have true thirst for

a spiritual experience." After his demise his

disciple Sadananda became the leader

of his sect.

The views and doctrines of the sects like

|Laldasi, Ghasidasi and Jivandasi went on

awakening among the masses a consciousness

of the nobility of human existence. Hence

came out, later on, sddhakas from the lower

strata of society in different parts of India. It

is difficult to mention them exhaustively in the

limited extent of this lecture. We shall have

only to select a few of them who are better

known than the rest.

First, we are to mention the wellknown

bhakta of the Punjab named S u t h r a-

s h a h. The story goes that his father

deserted him on his birth because he was dirty

or kuthrd, and Guru Har Govind picked him

.up and called him suthrd or 'the pure one'. This

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LIBERAL THINKERS 139

account seems to be quite unhistorical. Thefact is that this bhakta was born in a

S u t h a r or carpenter family and received

his peculiar name from this fact. The original

entre of the Suthra-shahi sect was in Barhan-

pur near Pathankote. They now have a math

near the Kashmir darwaja in Lahore.

But for the protection ofHar Govindthe deserted Suthra-shah might have been

taken, according to law of the time, to a

Mussulman orphanage. Suthra-shah was a

great hero and gave substantial assistance to

the guru Har Govind. Aurangzeb perse-

cuted him much. But when he showed his

opponents that both the sddhanas, Hindu as

well as Mussulman, were to be found in him

they stopped to persecute him.

Jhangar Shah was the chief of his

disciples. An annual fair takes place in the

Lahore math of the sect at the new-moon dayof the month of Bhadra. Besides the one

in Lahore they have another math in PuramMandl in Delhi. But Suthra-shahis of other

places consider them to be almost outcastes

because of their alleged contamination by the

touch of Mussulmans.

The history of P u r a n-b h a g a t whowas a Yogi from his very boyhood is very

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140 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

popular throughout the Punjab. The centre

of the followers of Puran-bhagat is at Sialkot

in the Punjab. Many are the bhaktas whovisit the place to receive inspiration for their

sadhana.

G a r i b-d a s was the name of numeroussddhakas in different parts of India. We havei

already known Garib-das the son of Dadfij

Garib-das of Chhurani will be taken up later

on. In the Punjab too there was one Garib-

das who was a monotheist and was in favour

of uniting the sddhanas of the Hindus and the

Mussulmans.

C h h a j ju-b h a g a t flourished in Lahore

and an influence of Kabir as well as of Sikhism

is to be noticed in him. Though he was to

some extent in favour of making a synthesis

of the Hindu and the Mussulman ideas, yet

he made some sort of compromise with the

ways and manners of current Hinduism.

A thirst for spiritual life drove B a b a-1 a 1

to Lahore, where he came in touch with

Chaitanya Svami or Baba Chetan.About 1590 Baba-lal was born in a Khetri

family living in Malwa. Though he used the

name of Ram he did not mean by it any avatar

or sectarian deity. To him Ram, Hari or

Bhagavdn meant nothing other than the One

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LIBERAL THINKERS 141

Supreme God whom all sects ought to worship.He had faith in the teachings of Kabir andDadu. He says that, 'Through tranquility,

self-restraint, purity, kindness, service, simpli-

city, true vision, and by obliterating the

limitation of ego, one can attain the path of

bhakti and prema, which leads to the attain-

ment of God. Love of God fills up one's beingand the joy of this love-union with God cannot

be expressed in words." Once somebodyenquired of him about the nature of the joyavailable in this union of love. His answer

to this was that had this joy been a matter

capable of being explained by analogy there

would have been no need of any striving for

its attainment. To him, cessation of desires

did not mean a mortification of flesh by

neglecting food and clothing etc. By such

cessation he understood the freeing of one-

self from ignorance, error and forgetfulness

about the true mission of life. God was to

him an ocean of joy and an individual a

drop from it. The difference between the two

proceeds from the ego the individual has about

the mortal frame that contains him. The ces-

sation of this qualifying ego leads to Yoga or

union. Death does not bring about this ces-

sation for which one must have sddhand.

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142 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

Baba-lal who had Sufi ideas also, had deep

relationship with the Prince Dara Shikoh.

The various discussions on spiritual matters

which the two held together have been very

beautifully recorded in the Persian work

named, the N a d i r-u n-N i k a t.

We have already referred to the historyof Dara Shikoh, but he should be mentioned

once again. Many of the contemporarysddhakas were in touch with Dara and were

to some extent influenced by his ideals and

views, and Indian bhaktas know him to be a

sddhaka. Brotherhood of all religions and

amity of all humanity were the objects of his

great dream of life. But his premature death

left his ideal unrealized. The religious catho-

licity among the different sects of India which

he intended ta develop remained an idea.

Mutual jealousy among the sects which grew

up later on shattered the sddhand of India and

the misery which came that way are yet far

from being at an end.

It should not however be imagined that

the difference between the Hindu and the

Mahomedan sddhand was the only problemthat engaged the attention of Dara. He was

thinking besides how men and women, insteadof being a hindrance to each other, might be

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LIBERAL THINKERS 143

co-workers in the acquisition of knowledge as

well as in the path of sadhana. The verybrilliant group of sddhakas (Sufis and sannya-sis), scholars in Sanskrit, Hindi, Arabic and

Persian, which met around Dara in the Mughalpalace of Delhi and discussed among other

things abstruse subjects like the Vedanla andthe Greek philosophy, included some ladies.

In this gathering Jagannath Misra the cele-

brated author of the Rasagangadhara(a work on Sanskrit poetics) recited Sanskrit

poems composed by him. One of the ladies,

who, from behind the screen, took part in this

meeting, was a Mughal princess who<was at home in Sanskrit kdvyas and was anadmirer of the poet and scholar JagannathMisra. He too cherished a love for the lady on

account of her interest in him.

Once pleased with Jagannath's poetryDara was ready to give him any thing he cared

to ask for. Upon this the poet expressed his

desire to have the princess. Dara asked himwhether the princess too was in love. The

poet who was correctly informed asked Darato make his own enquiry. Dara made

enquiries and found out that the lady was in

love with Jagannah and said to him, "O poet,

you are right and I shall fulfil my words, but

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144 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

>the pity is that I shall lose you; you shall

leave Delhi."

Dara provided them with a horse and

>under the cover of night they disappeared.

Arriving at Benares Jagannath found that all

the temples had been closed to him. It was

enough for the people that they knew of

Jagannath's intimate relation with a womanof different faith, and they strictly avoided his

contact. But of all the different sacred shrines

.the Ganges remained accessible to him, and

it is for this reason that Jagannath's poetical

adoration of the Ganges (Gang a-b h a k t i-

.t a r a II g i n I or 'the Stream of the Devotion

to the Ganges) has been so very touching.Afterwards he left Benares and settled in

Durgakhoh on the Ganges. In the mean-

while Dara met his death. But Jagannath*and his wife did not long outlive him,

and both of them died in Durgakhoh.

Jagannath's poem named the B h a m i n i-

v i 1 a s a was an embodiment of the charms

of the Mughal princess whom he took as

wife.

So much about a story of human love.

Dara's dream included the co-operation of

women in the intellectual and spiritual fields,

and all his so-called eccentric ideas spread

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LIBERAL THINKERS 145

considerable contagion among his companionsand followers as well.

At the touch of Dara's idealism manybecame sddhakas with a very catholic anduniversal outlook. One of such sddhakas is

Charag-das. Through his companions, Dara's

influence reached the sects like those of Sib-

narayan. Charan-das did not meet Dara but

the contact with the latter's admirer, Sukha-

nanda, brought a change in the mind and life

of Charan-das. And Sukhananda was besides

a follower of Kabir.

t^In 1903 Charan-das 10 was born in a village

named Dahra (or Dehra) in the Alwar State

of Rajputana. He came of a Bania family* of

Rewari and was known as R a nj

i t in his

early life. While Ranjit was yet a boy in

Dehra his father Muralidhar disappearedin a forest probably fell victim to a tiger.

After this sad event his maternal grand-father

Prayag-das took hirn over to Delhi and

began to train him for government service. But

at the age of nineteen Ranjit came in contact

with Sukhananda and changed his mind for

the rest of his life. At the age of thirty

According to the Misrabandhu-vinod he was a Brahman.

10

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146 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

Charan-das began to preach to the people.His followers believe in the story that he

received his initiation from SukadevaG o s v a m I, the mythical narrator of the

Bhagavata P u r a n a. <-

^ D a y a-b a i and S a h ajo-b a i were

among Charan-das's kinsfolk. He knewthem from his boyhood, and on his spiritual

illumination these two ladies came to him for

guidance to sadhana. Charan-das set a great

value on the spiritual efforts of women and

gave them proper instructions.

After the death of Charan-das, M u k t a-

n a n d became the leader of the sect.

R a m r u p a disciple of Charan-das has

recorded many stories about his guru in the

work named (^u rnbhakti-prakasa(the Light of Devotion to the Master). His

disciple R a m-s a n e h i was a great bhakta

and able sddhaka.

The sect of Charan-das is famous for its

ethical purity. Before his time many evil

practices had crept into the society. Hence

Charan-das's teachings did a great service to

the people. He was against the following ten

kinds of actions: (1) telling a lie, (2) using

filthy or obscene language, (3) harsh words,

(4) sophistry, (5) theft, (6) adultery, (7) killing

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LIBERAL THINKERS 147

any creature, (8) thinking harm of other people,

(9) enmity to people and (10) infatuation.

The following according to Charan-dasare duties that should be done: duties to

family, social duties, intercourse with goodpeople and with saintly people, devotion toone's spiritual guide and to Sri Hari (God) whois the basis of the entire creation. Among thefollowers of Charan-das are two kinds ofsddhus : house-holders and sannyasis (mendi-cants). They wear yellow clothes. Charan-das was in favour of neat and decent dress.

For the reformation of many corruptions anddemoralisation of the Vallabha sect Charan-das had to struggle hard. He had the

B h a g a v a d-g 1 1 a and the Bhagavataetc. translated, and himself wrote works namedthe S a n d e h a-s a g a r (the Sea of

Doubts) and the Dharamjahaj (the Shipof Dharma). The latter is to be compared with

Dara's Shafinat-i-Aulia. His disciple Sahajo-bai wrote works named the S a h a j-

p r a k a s (the Revelation of Natural Truth)

and the Solatattv a-n i r n a y a (the

Investigation of Sixteen Essential Truths).

There are many works in the vernacular that

have been written by the followers of Charan-

das. Among them the Dayabodh and

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143 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

the Vina y-m a 1 i k a were written byDaya-bai.

"This universe/3

says Charan-das, "is filled

with the Brahman. The symbols like tulasl

and sdlagrdm are useless. Good conduct andmoral purity are the very first steps in the

sddhand and furnish its essential means. Loveand devotion are its very life. But this love

and devotion, expressed in other ways than in

deeds, are fruitless. Practice only impartstruth to ideas/' Though his ideas betray a

very slight tinge of the Madhva School, Kabir's

influence on them is paramount.The tomb of Charan-das and the principal

math of his sect are in Delhi. An annual fair

meets there during the Sri Pailchami. There

are "maths too in Delhi and there is also a mathin Dehra w^hich is his birth place. But the

math which is at Bahadurpur, his paternal

home, is the biggest. Maths of this sect exist

in great numbers in the Doab regions.

The Charan-dasi sect has a collection of

good maxims for their daily use. One of its

chapters contains passages from the U p a n i-

s a d s and another from the Bhagavata. Its

style is very clear and impressive.

During Charan-das's time, the political

power of Islam was gradually crumbling

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LIBERAL THINKERS 149

down. The invasions of Nadir Shah andA b d a 1

i, as well as the Third battleof P a n i p a t, occurred while he was still

living. After seeing the power of MuhammadShah, Ahmad Shah, Alamgir Shah II pass

away he died in 1782.

Charan-das had a disciple namedR a m r u p S v a m I who was an able

sddhaka. He was born in a Gaura Brahman

family and lost his mother while he was three

months old. As his father M a h a r a m did

not take any care of him, a woman very kindly

brought him up. From Charan-das he got his

initiation in 1754. He is known as G u r u-

b h a k t a n a n d a. His work named the

jMu k t i m a r g a, or the Gurubhakti-

prakasa, is full of bhakti for the guruand contains 2300 slokas.

^"The Sahaj-prakas by Sahajo-bai is verymuch loved by the bhaktas of the Northern

India. In Rajputana, the Punjab and the North-

Western Province there are many sddhus whorevere her. But had she not been initiated

into spiritual life by Charan-das, she mightnot have realised the greatness of the latter

even though belonging to the same family with

him.

"Through the grace of the guru" she

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150 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

writes, "I understood the value and significanceof life/

3 Much suffering came to her from her

relations, but she had no complaint againstthem. From her writings it appears that she

felt very much distressed at the ways andmanners of some pseudo-sadhus and greedyrelatives.

v/Daya-bai was another disciple of Charan-

das. It has been mentioned before that she

wrote the Dayabodh and the Vinay-malika.

Sayings of Daya have been arranged after the

manner of the collection of Dadu's sayings,

The different parts contain the greatness of the

guru, remembering the name of God, heroism

in sddhana, love, renunciation, the greatnessof the sddhus, and japa along with breathing.

The Vinay-malika contains a collection of very

touching prayers by Daya.We have already been acquainted with the

woman bhakta Andal of South India and

Mira-bai of Rajputana. Besides these, there

are other women bfiaktas who ought to be

mentioned. We shall give here a few more of

their names.

K s e m a an Abhir's daughter and a

senior contemporary of Kabir, was a womansddhaka of very deep spiritual attainments.

Conversation with this Ksema or K s e m a-

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LIBERAL THINKERS 151

t r I has been considered ennobling even byKabir. She has many very deep and beautiful

sayings. Kabir had some women disciples, of

whom Gang a-b a i was one. Kabir's

daughter, Kamali, had also very deep spiritual

attainments. Ramananda too had some women

xdisciples. Some of their sayings are still

current orally among the sddhus. We cannot

mention them all in this short lecture. But

Dadu's daughters, however, cannot remain

unmentioned.

^ Dadu had two daughters, N a n i-b a i and

M a t a-b a i. They were born between 1570

and 1575. When they grew up, Dadu gavethem education and religious instruction.

It is said that while living in Amber,

Bhagavant Das (Man Singh's father)

the Raja of Jaypur unintentionally passed

some remark on the unmarried condition of

Dadu's grown up daughters ; this annoyed him

and he left Amber and settled in Narana.

Dadu wished his daughters to marry and turn

householders, but they resolved to remain

unmarried and devote their lives to sddhand.

Their w^ords have now become very hard to

procure, but a few fragments, which are still

available from the mouths of sddhus, are very

marvellously deep. >

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152 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

Besides the cowherd maidens of the Vraja,,

twenty or twenty-five other women bhaktas-

have been mentioned in the Bhaktamal. Asthe Bhaktamal is a well-known book and

easily available, they may well be left out in

this short lecture.

While speaking of Kabir and his followers

we have omitted the name of M a 1 u k-d a s.

He was influenced more by Ramananda, the

guru of Kabir, than by Kabir himself. ButMaluk-das and his disciples married and

followed the life of householders. In this>

particular matter they have principally follow-

ed Kabir.

In Karha in the district of Allahabad

Maluk-das was born about 1574 (accordingto the M a 1 u k-P a r c h a y I by S u t h r a-

das Kayastha). His father's name wasSundar-clas who belonged to a Kshatri family.

From his very boyhood Maluk-das was-

kind-hearted and sympathetic about other

peoples' suffering. Whenever he saw a thorn

badly placed in a path he removed it at once,

lest this should give pain to any one. For this

very soft-heartedness he attained little success

in business.

Some say that he became afterwards a

disciple to Vitthal-das from the Dravir

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LIBERAL THINKERS 153

country (Southern India). Maluk-das as wehave said before was a householder. Adaughter was born to him. But neither his

wife nor his daughter lived long.

He had twelve disciples, such as L a 1-d a s

R a m-d as, U d a i r a m, P r a b h u-d a s,

S u d a m a and others. After his death in 1682

his nephew Ram-sanehi become the head of his

sect. Maths and members of this sect are

scattered over the entire Northern India from

Bihar to Multan and even to Kabul. I have

seen Maluk-das's followers even in Rajputana

and Gujarat. In Nepal too they are found.

Maluk-das had an extraordinary faith in

God. Though he has preached against the

worship of images and idols, external formal-

ism and pilgrimage to holy places, his followers

are no longer immune from these. His writings

named the Bhaktavat sal, Ratna-k h a n and Dasarat n a-g r a n t h etc.

are full of sayings expressing his love and

devotion. Besides these there are some of his

fine sayings orally carried by the bhaktas.

Like Kabir, Maluk-das too taught the futility

of asceticism, asked people to leave off

external formalism and sectarian ostentation.

In 1717 Garib-das was born in Chhurani

in the district of Rohtak in the Punjab and in?

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154 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

1778 he passed away. He met Kabir in a

dream and received initiation from him at that

very moment. He was a peasant born in a

Jath family. He was full of Kablr's ideas.

The book of devotion, which his followers

study, is made up of his sayings as well as

some of Kabir's.

Garib-das was a householder and the

position of mahant is occupied in his sect

by married people of his line.

Every year in the tenth day of the bright

half of the month of Falgun a great fair is held

in the village of Chhurani. By Garib-das

women too were initiated for sddhand,

Among his disciples S a 1 o tj

i was a veryable sddhaka. The collection of Garib-das's

.sayings has been arranged in anyas in the same

manner as that of Dadu. It contains fifteen

angas and these have names similar to those

,of DadtTs collected sayings. The sayings of

Garib-das contain Hindu as well as Mussulman

ideas and concepts. He has used terms like

Allah, Ram, and Han etc. According to him

if one leaves aside external formalism and

turns to introspection and self-realisation then

-only one's sddhand becomes of the true kind.

^Garib-das's prayers too are very touching.In the sect of S i b-n a r a y a n also

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LIBERAL THINKERS 155

Hindu and Mussulman ideas have been

blended. About 1710 gib-narayan was born in

a Rajput family in the village of Chandrabar

in the district of Balia. He spoke very strongly

.against the worship of images, and was one

of the pure monotheists of India. Accordingto him God is devoid of any attribute andwithout any form. His followers do not use

fish, meat or wine. They give emphasis on

the earnest devotion to God, pure heart and

character, peace, self-control and kindness to

all creatures as a means to success in sddhana.

They recite some mantras at the time of

bathing. People of all castes and creeds mayenter this sect. A great fair of the membersof this sect takes place every ye&r in the fifth

day of the bright half of the month of Magha.The story goes that ibnarayan was much

influenced by the ideas of Dara Shikoh. Someof the followers of Dara, it is true, met him and

they had associated in their sadhand Hindu as

well as Mussulman ideas. There are some

people who believe that the Mughal EmperorBahadurShah (1719-1748) was initiated

in this sect. We do not know how far this wasan historical fact but there is some authentic

evidence of the fact that the contemporary

poets like Wali Allah, Abru and Nazi

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156 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

had great regard for Sibnarayan. He has left

behind many writings, and as many as sixteen

works are now available. There are manymembers of the Chamar and Dosad tribes whobelong to this sect. There are Mussulmans and

even Christians in this sect; some of the latter

hail from the district of Arrah.

B u 1 1 e Shah and B u 1 1 a S a h i b of

the Satnamis are different persons. Accordingto some Bulle Shah was born in Constanti-

nople in the year 1703. By birth he was a

Saiyad and while young he felt a keen thirst

for spiritual things. But he had no chance of

quenching this thirst in his own native

country; getting to know afterwards of Indian

sddhakas he came on foot to the Punjab. Here-

he very luckily met Inayet Shah who was at

home equally in the Hindu and Mahomedansadhand. Besides this he met some Hindusddhakas too. He then settled in the village

of Kasur and began his sadhand.

But now the doctors of Islamic theology

began to draw him into polemics because of his;

very out-spoken criticism of the Koran. ButBulle Shah was more than a match for all the

maulavis who could never defeat him with

arguments. He remained a bachelor all his

life and died in Kasur where his tomb still

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LIBERAL THINKERS 157

exists. Many sddhakas and Wiaktas make

pilgrimage to this tomb.

Bulle Shah has left his sayings in such per-

fect Punjabi that one can hardly detect his

foreign origin from his language. Probablythis was possible owing to the fact that he cameto the Punjab while very young.

The following are a few specimens of his

sayings.

"People say, O Bulla, thou shouldst go in-

side the mosque; but of what avail will the

'inside of a mosque' be if the namdz (prayer) do

not come from 'the inside of my heart5

?".

"O Bulla, robbers reside in religious

shrines, in thdkur-dwdras (Hindu temples)live the thieves and in mosques are sitting

scoundrels. But God who is all love stays out

of all this."

"In the mosque or in the Kaaba, in the

Koran or in formal namdz will you find God

(Khudd)! Whatever little I may realize by

my own plain efforts gets confused when the

pandits come in."

"0 Bulla, there will be no liberation from

& visit to Mecca, until you drive away vanity

from your heart. Nor will liberation come

irom bathing in the Ganges though you mayhave hundreds of plunges in its waters.

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158 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

Liberation will come only when egoism has

been given up."

"O Bulla, realising Allah within myself, I

have attained supreme joy and supreme peacefor all time. From the daily death I have

attained daily life, and daily I am goingforward".

"O Bulla, remain intoxicated in the love

of the Lord. Of course, hundreds of thousands

of reproaches you may have for this. But do

not mind them all, whenever will people sayCA Kafir, a Kafir thou art', you will only say,

'yea, yea'."

The Ram-sanehi sect was organised by the

sddhaka Santa Ram or Ramcharan of

Rajputana. Between 1715 and 1720 he wasborn in the village of Surasen in Jaypur. In

1742 he began to preach his doctrines. Ram-sanehi means 'one who has love for Rama'

(Skt. Rdma-snehl}. Members of this sect try

to realise God through love. They do not set

any value on image-worship. In Rajputana

they have many maths. Some of their maths

are also in Gujarat, Ahmedabad, Baroda.

Surat, Balsar. A few years back there lived

in their math in Jodpur a great sddhaka,named Mahanta D u 1 h a-d a s. \/

P r a n-n a t h (1700-1750) was born in

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LIBERAL THINKERS 159

Kathiawar. After travelling over various

parts of the country he settled at last in the

Panna State in Bundelkhand. His followers

or Pran-nathis, as they are called, are veryliberal. They have equal regard for the

sddhand of the Hindus and the Mussulmans,,and friendship between the two communitiesis one of the objects for which they strive.

Pran-nath was equally conversant with the

scriptures of the Hindus and the Mussulmans.

All through his life he desired to bring about

an union of the Hindus and the Mussulmans.

Raja C h h a t r a-s h a. 1 who met him in 1732T

became his admirer. Both Hindus and

Mussulmans are members of his sect. Thoughat home they follow their own individual tra-

ditional laws and customs, they carry on their

sddhand by uniting themselves at the place of

their sddhand by means of love, devotion and

friendship. As they call God Dham this

sect is also given the name of Dham I. In

the saying of Pran-nath terms of Islamic

sddhand are exceedingly plentiful.

Their means of sddhand principally con-

sist of morals, purity of character, service,

kindness and doing good to others. Hindu and

Mussulman members of the sect take their

meals sitting together in a row. The-

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160 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

K u 1ju m, the principal scripture of this

sect, is full of Hindu and Mussulman ideas.

Its teachings are purely monotheistic.

T u 1 s 1 Sahib was born about 1760.

He was a Brahman by birth, and according to

some bhaktas, was born in the family of the

Peshwas. After renouncing the world and a

possibility for a princely career he settled in

Hathras and was therefore known as Tulsi

Sahib H a t h r a s I. According to one

tradition he belonged to the A w a-p a n t h I

sect. His wife was L a k s m I-b a i and he

had a son by her. But when time came for

accepting the life of political responsibility he

left the word. The famous B aj

i Rao II

\\ho was his younger kinsman, went to meet

him at Vithur.

Tulsi Sahib was at home in the essentials

of Hindu as well as Mussulman scriptures andsddhana. He said : "External practices and

formalism are worth nothing and the real

sddhana is within one's own self. Sddhana is

nothing other than a spiritual union of the self

with the world/' Tulsi Sahib delivered strongblows at the false ideas and practices of Hindus

as well as Mussulmans.

Once a Brahman while bathing in the

Oanges was asking a Sudra to move off, lest

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LIBERAL THINKERS 161

bis touch might pollute him. Tulsi Sahibnoticed this and said, "Yours, sir, is a verystrange sdstral If the Ganges is so pure onaccount of her origin from Visnu's feet, why.should gudra who has sprung up from the self-

same feet be so very impure?"Tulsi had many bhaktas and other

admirers. E a m-k r i s n a the shepherd wasone of them. His chief disciple was S u r-

s v a m I. Tulsi Sahib died in 1842. His

principal works are the G h a t-R a m a y a nand the R a t n a-s a g a r. His vdnls which

contain many beautiful stories are very much

appreciated.

We should name here the Visnuite

Anant-panthis and A p a-p a n t h i s,

iThe Anant-panthis are worshippers of Godwhom they call the Anant (the Limitless One).Their centres are in Rai Bereilly and Sitapur.

They have their sadhand in the Vaisnava

fashion.

Nearly two centuries ago a goldsmithnamed M u n n a-d a s of Kheri district

founded the Apa sect. This sect gives the

highest place to bhakti (devotion) and does not

set any value on castes as well as externals,

such as tilak, kaupin and rosaries. Munna-das

had no guru, and as he became a guru by his

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162 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

own sddha/nd this sect is called Apa-panth

(the sect of the own self). The chief seat of the

sect is in the Oudh.

Bhakta G o v i n d a-d a s founded the sect

called the G o v i n d a-p a n t h who have their

sddhand after the manner of the Vaisnavas.

A big annual fair meet at Aharauli in the dis-

trict of Faizabad, where his tomb exists.

Bhakta D e d h r aj is one of the last

great sddhakas of the Indian Mediaeval period.

In 1771 he was born in a Brahman family in

the village of Dharsu in Narnaul district. His

father's name was Puran. Extreme povertydrove him to Agra while he was about thirteen

or fourteen years of age. At that time

Madhav Rao Sindhia was the ruler

of the place. In Agra, Dedhraj began to serve

in the house of D h a r a m-d a s who was the

dewan of the Sindhia. In this place, he camein contact with many Hindu and Mussulmansddhakas. On attaining a spiritual life he

began at the age of thirty-three to preach his

free and liberal views. He spoke against castes

and himself took a Vaisya girl as his wife.

Subsequently he went to his native place and

preached his views. Nawab Najawat Aliof Jhajhar who ruled over Narnaul, imprison-

ed Dedhraj for his heterodox opinions. He

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LIBERAL THINKERS 163

suffered much in prison but there occurring an

internal trouble in Jhajhar all the prisoners

were let off. After his release, Dedhraj settled

in Chhurina in Khetri and began to preachthere. He died in Chhurina at the age of

eighty-one.

The principal centre of the sect of Dedhrajis Bhiwani in the district of Gurgaon.G a n g a-r a m was a disciple of Dedhraj and

Ram Chandra was his son. I came to

know Santa Ram who was his disciple.

In Jhajhar, Narnaul and Gurgaon there are

sadhakas who are members of his sect.

According to them God is one, formless,

incomparable, eternal and omnipresent. His

followers do not acknowledge castes or the

necessity of any image or symbol. By them,

men and women are given equal place in the

field of sadhand. In his time, which was not

modern, Dedhraj fought against the seclusion

women. Hence women of his sect do not

observe purdah; at least, in their religious

congregations they do not have it. At the

time of prayer, their women sing and sing

very well. I have seen male members

(sadhakas} of this sect dance in ecstasy like

the Baiils.

They have equal regard for the Hindu and

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164 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

the Mussulman sddhand. They draw out

moral maxims from the Ramayana and the

Mahabharata etc. but they do not consider

these books as infallible scriptures. They refer

to the Supreme Divinity by names like Ramand Hari etc. Their sayings are in the verna^

cular. The members of Dedhraja's sect are also

called N a n g a (naked) for the women amongthem do not keep themselves in purdah, and

the sect is therefore called Nj^n g i-p a n t h.

It is remarkable that Dedhraj and his

disciples, who flourished slightly before RajaR a m-m o h a n Roy and had not the advan-

tage of an acquaintance with the modern

spirit, could stand against the castes, image-

worship and an infallible scripture, and could

proclaim the brotherhood of different religions

and the worship of the one formless Supreme

Divinity. It has been mentioned before that

in their sddhana they admit the equality of

men and women. Their view that all men and

women are brothers and sisters, because Godis the common father of all, is worthy of

serious consideration by all.

From now on, the m o d e r n p e r i o d of

the Religious History of India began under the

leadership of Ram-mohan Roy and other

modern religious leaders who came after him.

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LIBERAL THINKERS 165

I omit from these lectures any account of

the Auls, Baiils, Darvesh, Sham, Samjogi and

Karta-bhaja etc. of Bengal, for it can well be

assumed that you already know of them to

some extent, and moreover time at our dis-

posal is limited. Karta-bhajas or the followers

of the True Eeligion (Satya-dharma-vddl)include both Hindus and Mussulmans, and in

this sect Brahmans can get initiation from a

guru who is born in a Mussulman family.

All over Bengal, Orissa and the outlying

localities there flourished once Nath, Niranjan

and others sects which were characterised bytheir very free and forcible tenets. But, for

some reasons which are not clear to us, they

have gradually lost their glorious position and

are now begging in various ways for an ac-

commodation however humble in orthodox

Hinduism. We have no time here to discuss

all this.

In the course of this lecture, we had

to mention many bhaktas and their circles,

to do justice to all of whom we require as manylectures of this length. Thus some portions of

these lectures have been like a catalogue of

names. But in most cases their ideals and

sddhana are similar, though for the sake of

history we had to repeat them several times.

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166 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

All of them had a desire to establish through

spiritual sadhand a brotherhood and a friendly

unity among followers of different religions.

Sddhakas after sddhakas exerted themselves

for this end and they have either attained some

degree of success or met failure, but a cessation

of effort in this direction never occurred. Thus,to emphasise this fact we must repeat certain

things, in some form or other again and again.This repetition makes clear for us the internal

urge and anxiety which they felt for establish-

ing a brotherhood among religions and unity

among all people and their sadhand. It seems

that owing to this lofty goodwill by which the

Providence has characterised her sadhand

India cannot find her salvation till this

sadhand has been accomplished. The soul of

India is, as it were, changing body after bodyand is taking new forms as a part of its quest

of salvation by this sadhand. The extent of

movements proceeding from this idealism and

their many-sided ramifications in different

places and peoples can hardly be explained

without repetition. In spite of this, we have

omitted from this lecture the names of those

bhaktas around whom any sect or circle of

sddhakas did not form after their death.

Hence the careers of sddhakas like Kamal or

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LIBERAL THINKERS 167

J n a n-d a s have not been discussed in these

lectures. For they did not leave behind them

any sect. I have mentioned here in detail onlythose bhaktas who were either followers of

tradition, customs and scriptures, (laka-veda-

panthl) or orthodox, or 'followers of truth

realised by themselves' (anbhau-sdcha-panthl)or liberal, and left behind them the tradition

of their own sddhand.

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NOTES

1. In pre-Vedic times long before the advent of Islam,

there existed in India prema and bhakti which gradually gained

acceptance among the followers of the Vedas though their

rituals and ceremonies kept on playing the major part in their

religious life. But on the coming of Islam the Vedic rituals and

ceremonies were not only of no use, but a hindrance in the

ffay of bringing out a synthesis of the two religions which could

meet only through a revival of the very ancient prema and

bhakti of India.

2. Almost all the Ziarats in Kashmir have been founded

in old Hindu places of "pilgrimage. This may also be said to*

have helped in bringing together Hindus and Mussulmans-

religiously.

3. The Padumavati was begun in 1518 A.C. and was com-

pleted a little before the death of Sher Shah (1545 A.O.).

4. For reliable information about the Tantras readers are1

referred to writing^ of Arthur Avalon (J. G. Woodroffe).

5, We are giving below some important names of the

fiaiva and Vai^nava Bhakti Schools of Southern India. Their

ideas and activities will be touched later on.

Namma Alvar (circa. 100 B.C.100 A.O.). He was the

first guru of bhaktas like Sa^hakopa (Satfagopa).

Tirunavukkaraau Svami Sundaramurti Svam! (700

1000 A.JO.).

Manika Vachakar, wrote the Tiru Vachakan*

(800-900 A.C.). fiaiva bhakta.

Nanda Pariah of Chidambaram (800-1000 A.O.). Saiva

bhakta.

Page 215: Medieval Mysticism

NOTES 169'

Maikontfadev. Organized Saivas and wrote the

sastra (900-1200 A.C.). Villala or cultivator by

caste.

Aruna Giriar (1300-1400 A.C.), son of devadW. Saiva

bhakta. Wrote the Tiru Pughal.

Than Manavar (1700-1800 A.O.), a Saiva poet of a Light

order.

Kama Linga Svaml-ghel (1900 A-C.) wrote the Arulpa,

a collection of devotional songs.

6. The Great Master blended the canonical (6dstrasiddha-

or vaidhl) bhakti of the South with the natural (sahaja) and

r&ganuga bhotkti of Bengal (Gautfa).

7. No sound conclusion can, however, be based on mere-

similarity of names.

8. Some more names are given in the following list:

Muktananda (1760-1851), a disciple of Sahajananda; in Garhra.

Bhakta Dayaram (1776-1851), born in Dabhoi (Baroda).

Bhakta Pritam Das (c. 1981), born and died in Devaki-

galode near Jetpur, Kathiawar.

Brahmananda (died 1831), an inhabitant of the village-

San, in Dungarpur pargana. A Barot by caste,

belonged to the Svami Narayam sect.

Dhiro Bhagat (lived till 1823), an inhabitant of the*

village Sawli near Baroda.

Bapa Bhagat (died 1844), a disciple of the preceding

Bhagat. His songs give joy and inspiration to the

devotees of Ka^hiawar.

Ranachhor-das Bhagat (lived till 1724), a Bania by

birth. Preached bliakti.

9. It is merely believed by some that Agra-das belonged to<

the Vallabha sect.

10. The Pahup!ar-doha, an Apabhrams'a work, written by

Muni Rama-singha yrho flourished about 1000 A.C., contains-

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170 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISMsome outspoken remarks about the meagre value of the sdstras

and popular form of worshipping the Divinity. (See a review

of the work by the translator in the Indian Historical

Quarterly, vol. xi, 1935. pp. 355-366).

11. An influence of this sect is perceptible in the Jagamohani

sect of Sylhet especially in the Vithangal math established by

Rama Krishna (born in 1575 A.C.) disciple of Jagamohan.

12. Historically most of these cannot be direct disciples of

Ramananda.

13. One of the foreign critics referred to in this connection

is Mr. F. E. Keaye of the Church Missionary Society,

Jubbulpore. He opines that Ramananda did not give up

idolatry though he might have criticised it. (See 'A History of

Hindi Literature', Heritage of India Series, Calcutta, 1920,

P. 21.)

14. A guru named Alakh Shah from Manua Chowki came

to be associated with the Baiils of Northern Bengal. It is for

this reason that the schools of the Baiils, Kamal Kumari,

Majhbari and Madhyama bear more or less the marks of Piran

.Shah's influence.

15. This Magahar which stands on the other bank of the

Ganges near Benares should not be confounded with the place

of the same name in the district of Basti. Death in this place

is free from any merit available from death in Benares.

16. There are two other sadhakat named Charan-das. One

of them was the author of the Bhakti-sagar. From the

autobiographical touches in the beginning of this work it

.appears that he belonged at first to the Iladha-vallabhl sect

of Svami Haridas. Another Charan-das composed the Jnana.

evarodaya in 1480 A.C. The sdkhis which hia disciple

Siddharam composed have been divided into angas like Dadu's

sayings. He hag sung of the glory of guru and the Supreme

Brahman.

Page 217: Medieval Mysticism

APPENDICES

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Page 219: Medieval Mysticism

APPENDIX II

DADtTS PATH OF SERVICE

Dadu belongs to the series of Indian poet-seers,

which includes Nanak, Kablr, Ravi-das, Mira-bai,

who were the outcome of the impact of Islam on

Hinduism, and are revered by both Hindu and Moslem,

to this day. He was boxn in 1544, and died in 1G03,

of the Christian era. He made hia living by sewing,,

skins' into bags for raising- water from wells, until

eventually he was. initiated into the religious life by'

the sadliu, Sundar-das. His original name, given to

him by his parents, haa been lost sight of; nor is there

any record of the customary religious name bestowed

on him by his guru. He used to call everyone "brother"

and they in turn affectionately called him Dadu (pet

name for elder brother) and this name of Dadu-dayaJ,,

the good Dadu, is the one which has come down to us.*

Dadu had no book-learning, but his natural genius

and the vision gained by his. devotion, made him, a lover

of beauty and a poet. Service has its social and ethical

side, expressed in the performance of civic duties and

of good works. Religious* fervour sometimes takes the

form of rigorous discipline, or sacrifice, or penance, for

their own sake. But the Path of Service which Dadu

pursued was spiritual, that is to say, it was the outward

manifestation of the Love of God which filled his heart.

* This explanation of Dadu's name current among some

of his followers has proved to be unhistorical. For the correct

interpretation of the same see p. 109.

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192 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

Spiritual emotion finds its expression in works of

,art, in forms of ceremonial; the urgence of spiritual

service finds its outlet in action, the motive force

behind which is, not sense of duty, nor self-

immolation, but love of God. And so its expression

has all the beauty of Art, or Poetry, and is as sponta-

neous. Man's indwelling; Spirit finds at least as good;

,a medium for artistic self-expression in the life he lives,

as in the paint or stone with which he works. Andthe spiritual devotee, like the poet or artist, finds

inspiration, not in material wants seeking their satisfac-

tion, but in his hunger after Perfection itself.

The Supreme Spirit takes form in the universe

because of its joy in* it- There is no compulsion of any

necessity. Man attains kindred nature with God he

also is able to create artistically when he gives

expression to his spiritual emotion in service, without

reference to any utility, whether for himself or for

others. Whenever such expression is narrowed to any

purpose, Beauty does not come into being. Daflu viewsi

creation as still going on he has no apprehension of

its ever coming to an end and for him, in the field of

service, man's own creation finds eternal .scope in love

and joy unfathomable.

The devotees of our middle ages were none of them

learned men, and they gave novel meanings of their own

to the technical terms in use in our philosophy, either

because they did not know their technical application,

or else because they found that such application did not

cover the significance of their own direct experiences.

The tenns Dvaita and Advaita technically signify

respectively the quality and identity of the Brahman and

Creation. But Dadu uses these words to denote the two

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APPENDICES 193

kinds of communion which man's self holds with the

Supreme Self, the differences between which were

brought out by the devotee, Ravi-das, before him.

Man holds communion with his Divinity in twodifferent ways. In the Dvaita, he is* a supplicant, with

nothing- to offer, or to create for himself. Such comr

munion is one of necessity or want, not of spiritual

expansion. There the worshipper and the worshippedare at best complementary to each! other, their essential

spiritual unity is not recognised. Nor is such com-

munion permanent; for, his want being satisfied, the

worshipper hag, to come down again to his own material

plane, and separation from the Divine is thus inherent

in the very act of answer to prayer. In the other, the

Advaita, man surrenders his self and has nothing to ask

for. In the joy of mutual service the spiritual one-ness

of worshipper and worshipped becomes patient. BotK.are creators and mingle permanently in their creation.

When woman asks for the price of her ministra-

tion, she becomes merely handmaid, losing her function

of asisisting in man's creation; and so in Dvaita-

communioii man m,ay obtain ^race as the reward of

service, but not the thrill of mutual surrender. Whenwoman knowt> herself as the companion of her mate, then

is she mistress of her lord's heart. Then she gives, but

.asks/ not for return; and as mistress ahe is creator, her

love fashioning her home as well as her life in its own

beauty. So, likewise, in Advaita-communion, the In-

finite is miade niaiiifest in the service of the worshipper ;

for, his service is nothing less than the realisation of

the identity of his nature with the Divine. On this

plane, love and joy gush forth in super-abundance,

surpassing all need.

\3

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194 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

And it follows that if, in man's worship there be

any narrowness, or feeling of separateness, or sectaria-

nism, any element of finitude, then such supremerealisation of service isi obstructed. "0 Dadu," deplores

our Poet, "The Brahman in whom all separate things

are to find unity, even Him they have divided amongsttheir separate sects. Casting aside the living

1

God, they

have tied into bundles their own; ignorance". Then

again : "Each of them are ensconced in their en-

closures, of sect or caste, but the heart of Dadu, the

servant of the Almighty, is not filled within these

narrow bounds".

When they ask him : "Is it then so easy to com-

prehends the All in its vastness?" Dadu replies: "Itrather requires overmuch intellect to maintain so manydistinctions, they are beyond my sample mind." Andhe adds: "Looik on the Supreme Soul and you will

find all souls to be one; they are different only if youcannot look beyond their differently coloured bodies.We have no eyes until we catch sight of the stupremeTruth ; only till then are we kept bound to sects, unableto attain the Bondless."

"But/' they object, "eaoh one follows some parti-cular path or other; where is the example of salvation-

being gained! by this universal path of yours, devoid ofall distinctions?" Whereupon Dadu answers them:"Great nature itself, and all great men are on my side.

What cult do they pursue earth and sky, water and

wind, day and night, sun and moon? What creed wasfollowed by Muhammad, tell me, or by Gabriel? Towhat sect did they belong? Who but Allah himself was

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APPENDICES 195

their Guru or Saint? The invisible God alone is th

World Teacher, there is none else."

Self, 'according to Dadu, melts away when immers-

ed in the depths of true Service. The good housewife

lurks' in the back-ground, while the household is. alive

and fulfilled with her loving- activity. God keep#

hidden away behind the veil, even in the tiniest dew-

drop, but is manifest throughout the Universe in the

vaatnesia of his service. "0 God", cries Dadu. "Teach

me to be like Thee, mindful of service, forgetful of self.

Teach me to rejoice in Thee a,s thou rejoicest in me, in

the grand durbar of our communion, for ever and ever."

The worshipper he exhorts thus : "Do you hesitate,

servant, fearing that you have nothing of value to

offer? Offer up yourself, in reverence, as you are: no

other thought need trouble you, for that 19 to be flike

the Master. Let your striving be as is the striving- of

the Master, for then will your song be attuned to His.

Let your service be as the service of the Master, for then

will you taste of the true joy of mutual service; not

the reward of a servant, but the eternal bliss of fellow-

ship in creation".

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APPENDIX III

DADU AND THE MYSTERY OF FORM

The language of' man has been mainly occupied with

telling- us about the elements into which the finite world

has been analysed; nevertheless, now and again, it

reveals glimpses of the world of the Infinite as well;

for the spirit of man has discovered rifts in the wall of

Matter. Our intellect can count the petals, classify the

scent, and describe the colour cf the rose, but its, unity

finds its expression when we rejoice in it.

The intellect at best can give us only a broken view

of things. The marvellous vision of the Seer, in spite

of the scoffing in which both Science and Metaphysicsso often indulge, can alone make manifest to us the

truth of a thing in its completeness. When we thus gaina vision of unity, we are no longer intellectually awareof detail, counting, classifying, or distinguishing for

then we have found admittance into the region of the

spirit, and there we simply measure the truth of our

realization by the intensity of our joy.

What is the meaning of this unutterable joy?That which we know by intellectual process is some-

thing outsidie ourselves. But the vision of anything in

the fullness of its unity involves the realization of the

unity of the self within, as well as of the relation

between the two. The knowledge of the many may makeU3 proud, but it makes us glad when our kinship with

the One is brought home to us. Beauty is the name that

we give to this acknowledgment of unity and of it$ re-

lationship with ourselves.

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APPENDICES 197

It is through the beauty of Nature, or of Human.

Character, or Service, that we #et our glimpses of the

Supreme Soul whose essence is bliss. Or rather, it is

when we became conscious of Him in Nature, or Art, or

Service that Beauty flashes out. And whenever we thus

light upon the Dweller-within, all discord disappears

and Love- and Beauty are seen inseparable from Truth.

It is really the coming of Truth to us as kinsman which

floods our being with Joy.

This realization in Joy is immediate^ self-sufficient,

ultimate. When the self experiences) Joy within, it is

completely satisfied and has nothing more to a^k from

the outside world. Joy, as we know it, is a direct,

synthetic measure of Beauty and neither awaits nor

depends upon any analytical process. In our Joy,

further, we behold not only the unity, but also the

origin, for the Beauty which tell? us of Him can be

nothing but radiance reflected, melody re-echoed, from

Him; else would all this have been unmeaning indeed

Society, Civilization, Humanity. The progress of

Man would otherwise have ended in an orgy of the

gratification of his animal passions.

The power of realization, for each particular

individual, is limited. All do not attain the privilege

of directly apprehending the universal Unity. Never-

theless, a partial vision of it, say in a flower, or in a

friend, is a comiopn experience; moreover, the poten-

tiality is inherent in every individual soul, by dint of

disciplined striving, to effect its own expansion andthereupon eventually to achieve the realization of the

Supreme Soul.

By whom, meanwhile, are these ineffable tiding-a

from the realm of the Spirit, the world of the Infinite,

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198 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

brought to us? Not by potentates or philosophers, but

by the poor, the untuotored, the despised. And with

what puperb assurance do they lead us* ourt of the desert

of the intellect into the paradise of the Spirit !

When our metaphysicians, dividing themselves into

rival schools of Monism, Dualism or Monistic-Dualism,

had joined together in dismissing the world as Maya,

then, up from the depths of their social obscurity, rose

these cobblers, weavers, and sewers of bags proclaimingsuch theorems of the intellect to be ail nonsense; for

the metaphysicians had not, seen, with their own inner

vision how the world overflowed with Truth and Love,

Beauty and Joy.

Dadii, Bavi-das, Kabir and Nanak were not ascetics;

the^y bore no message of poverty, or renunciation, for

their own sake; they were poets who had pierced the

curtain of 'appearances and had glimpses of the world

of Unity, where God himself is a poet. Their words

cannot stand the glare of logical criticism; they babble,

like babes, of the joy of their vision of Him, of the

ecstasy into which Hig music has thrown them.

Nevertheless, it is they, not the scientists or philo-

sophers, who have taught us of reality. On the oneside the Supreme Soul is alone, on the other myindividual soul is alone. If the two do not come

together, then indeed there befalls the greatest of all

calamities, the utter emptiness of chaos.. For all the

abundance of His inherent joy, Godi is in want of myjoy of Him; and Reality in its perfection only blossomswhere we meet.

"When I look upon the beauty o>f this Universe,"*aid Dadu. "I cannot help asking: 'How. Lord, did

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APPENDICES 199

you come to creat* it? What sudden wave of joy

coursing through your being compelled its own mani-

festation? Was it really due to desire for self-expres-

Bion, or simply on the impulse of emotion? Or was it

perhaps just your fancy to revel in the play of form?

Is this play then so delightful to you ;or is it that you

would ,see your own inborn delight thus taike shape?'

Oh, how can these questions be answered in words?"

cries Dadu. "Only those who know will understand."

"Why not go to him who has wrought this marvel/'

says Dadu elsewhere, "and ask : 'Cannot your own,

message make clear this >wondrous making of the One into

the many?* When I look on creation asi beauty of from,I see only Form and Beauty. When I look on TTaslife, everywhere I see Life. When, I look on it as

the Brahnwn, then indeed is Dad,u at a loss for words.

{When I see it in relation, it is of bewildering variety.

When I see it in my own soul, all its variousness is

merged in the beauty of the Supreme Soul. This eye of

mine then becomes, also the eye of the Bi-aliman^ and in

this exchange or mutual vision does Dadu behold Truth."

The eye cannot see the i'ace for that purpose a

mirror is necessary. That is to say, either the face has

to be put at a distance from the eye, or the eye moved

away from the face in any case what was one has to

be made into two. The image is not; the face itself, buttow elsfc is that to> be seen?

So does God mirror Himself in Creation; and since

He cannot place Himself outside His own Infinity, Hecan only gain a vision of Himself and get a tasteof His own joy through my joy in Him. and in HisUniverse. Hence the anxious striving of the devotee

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200 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

to keep himself thoroughly pure not through any pride

of puritanism, but because his soul isi the playground

where God would revel in Himself. Had not God'a

radiance, His beauty, thusi found its form in the Uni-

verse, its joy in the devotee. He would have remained

mere formless, colourless Being in the nothingness of

infinity.

This is what makes the Mystery so profound, so

inscrutable. Whether we say that only the Brahman is

true, or only the universe is true, we are equally far

from the Tlnith, which can only be expressed as both

this and tliat, or neither this nor that.

And1 Dadu can only hint at it by saying: "Neither

death nor life is He ;He neither goes out, nor does He

come in; nor sJeeps, nor wakes; nor wants, nor is satis-

fied. He is neither I nor you, neither One or Two. For

no sooner do I say that all is One, than I find us both;

and when. I say there are two, I see we're One. So,

Dadu, rest content to look on Him. just as He is, in the

deep of your heart, and give up, wrestling with vain

imaginings and empty words.

shower", Dadu goes on, "when spouts the

fount of the intellect ; but where realization grows, there

music has itsi seat." When the intellect confesses

defeat, and words fail, then, indeed, from the depth of

the heart wellg up the song of the joy of realization.

What words cannot make clear, melody can; to its

strains one can revel in the vision of God in His revels.

"That ia why", criea Dadu, "your universe, this

creation of yours, has charmed me so your waters and

your breezes, and this/ earth which holds them/, with its

rangesi of mountains, its great oceans, itsi snow-capped

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APPENDICES 20r

poles, its blazing- sun, because, through all the three

regions of earth, sty and heaven, amidisft all their multi-

fariouai life, it is your ministration, your beauty, that

keeps me enthralled. Who can kinow you, Invisible,

Unapproachable, Unfathomable! Dadu has no desire

to knowi; he is satisfied tio remain enraptured with all

this beauty of yours, and to rejoice in it with you."

To look upon Form as the play of4

Hist love is not to

belittle it. In creating the senses God; did not intend

them to be starved. "And .so", says Dadfa, "the eye is

feasted with colour, the ear with music, the palate with

flavours, wondrously provided/' And we find that* the

body longs for the spirit, the spirit for the body; the

flower for the scent), the scent for the flower;our worda

for truth, the Truth for words; form for itg ideal; the

idea for form;

all thus m.utual worship is but the

worship of the ineffable Reality behind, by whose

Presence every one of them ig glorified. And Diidu

struggles not, but simply (keeps his heart open to this

shower of love and thus rejoices in perpetual

Springtime.

Every vessel of form the Formless fills with Him-

self, and in their beauty He gains them in return.

With Hisi love the Passionless fulfils every devoted heart

and sets it a-dance, and their love streams back tp the-

Colourless, variegated with the tints of each. Beau-

teousi Creation yields up her charms, in all their purity,

to her Lord. Need she malep further protestation, in

words of their mutual love? So Dadu surrenders his

heart mind and soul at the feet of hist Beloved. His one-

care isi that they be not sullied.

If any one should object that evanescent Form is

not worthy to represent the Eternal, Dadu would answer"

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202 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

that it is just because Form is fleeting that it is a help,

not a hindrance, to His worship. While returning, back

to its Origin, it captures our mind and takes it alongwith it&elf. The call of Beauty tells us of t<he Unthink-

.afole, towards whom it lies, In passing over us. Death

.assures us of the truth of Life.

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APPENDIX IV

BAULS AND THEIR CULT OF MAN"

Baiil means madcap, from bdyu (Skt. vdyu) in its

sens of nerve-current. Some try to derive the name

Baiil from bdyu in its other meaning of air-current, on

the supposition that in the cult of the Baulsi, realisation

is dependant on the rousing of the spiritual forces by

regulated breathing exercises. I a'm unable to accept

this, because from the Siva-Samhita and other book/s we

find that it is wisdom, gained by meditation and concen-

tration that is clearly laid own to be tihe means of

realisation. Moreover the former derivation is support-

ed by the following verse of Nara4iari:

That is why, brother, I became a madcap Baiil.

No master I obey, nor injunctions, canons or

customs,

Now no men-made distinctions have any hold on

me,

And I revel only in the gladness of my own

welling love.

In love there's no separation, but commingling

always,

So I rejoice in song and dance with each and all.

Here the term Baiil and its meaning occur together.

These lines also introduce us to the main tenets of the

cult. The freedom, however, that the Baiils seek from

all forms of outward compulsion, goes even further, for

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204 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

among such are recognised as well the compulsions

exerted by our desires and antipathies. Therefore,

according to this cult, in order to gain real freedom,, one

has first to die to the life of the world whilst still in the

flesh,-'for only then can one be rid of all extraneous

claims. Those of the Baiils who have Islamic leanings

call such "death in life" fand, a term used by the Suite

to denote union with the Supreme Being. True love,

according to Baiils, is incompatible with any kind of

compulsion . Unless the bonds of necessity are over-

come, liberation is out. of the question. Love represents

the wealth of life which is in excess of need. The idea

appears to be the same as that under which

the uliclichJiista* (surplus) is exalted in the Atharva Veda

(XI, 9). It should also be noted that Kabir, Nanak and

other upper Indian devotees, use the work bdur in the-

same sense of madcap, and in their verses, there are

likewise numerous references to thisi idea of "death in

life."

The Baiil cult is followed by householders as well

as homeless wanderers, neither of whom acknowledgeclass or caste, special deities, temples or sacred places.

Though they congregate on the occasion of religious

festivals, mainly of the Vaisnavas, held in special

centres they never enter any temple. They do not set

up any images of divinities, or religious symbols, in

their own places of worship or mystic realisation. True,,

they *ometimeg maintain with care and reverence, spota

sacred to some esteemed master or devotee, but they per-

form no worship there. Devotees from the lowest strata

of the Hindlu and Moslem communities are welcomed

I into their ranks, hence the Baiils are looked down upon

by both. It is possible that their own contempt for

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APPENDICES 205

temples had its origin in the denial of admittance

therein to their low class brethren. Anyhow they have

no use for Thdkor-thokor (deity or divinity), say they,

What! need have we of otter temples, is. not this bodyof ours the temple where the Supreme Spirit has His

abode? The human body, despised by most other reli-

gions, is thus for themi the holy of holies, wherein the

Divine is intimately enshrined as the Man of the Heart.

And in this wise is the dignity of Man upheld by them.

Kablr, Nanak, Ravi-das, Dadu and hia followers,

have also called man's body the temple of God, the

microcosm, in which the cosmic abode of the all-pervad-

ing Supreme Being i? represented.

Kabir says:

In this body is the Garden of Paradise; herein

are comprised the seven seas and the myriad stars;

here is the Creator manifest. (1-101).

In this body are the temples of the gods and

all pilgrimages (1-85).

Dadu says :

This body is my scripture; herein the All-

Merciful has written for me Hia message. (XIII, 41),

Rajjab (Dadu's Chief Moslem disciple) says:

Within the devotee is the paper on whiclj the

scriptures are written in letters of Life. But few

care to read them; they turn a deaf ear to the

message of the heart.

Most Indian sects adopt some distinct way of keep-

ing the hairs of head and face as a sign of their sect or

order. Therefore, go as to avoid being dragged into any

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206 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

such distinction, Baxils allow hair and beard and

moustache to grow freely. Thus do we remain simple^

they say. The similar practice of the Sikhs in this

matter is to be noted. Neither do the Baiils believe that

lack of clothing or bareness of body conduce to religioua

merit. According- to them the whole body should be

iept decently covered. Hence their long robe, for which

if they cannot afford a new piece of cloth, they gather

rags and mate it of patches. In this they are different

from the ascetic sanyasins, but resemble rather the

Buddhist monks.

The Baiilg do not believe in aloofness from, or

renunciation of, any person or thing; their central idea

is yoga, attachment to and communion with the divine

and its manifestations, as the means of realisation.

We fail to recognise the temple of God in the bodily life

of man, they explain, because its la;mp ia not alight.

The true, vision must be attained in which this temple

will become manifest in each and every human, body,

whereupon mutual communion and worship will spon-

taneously arise. Truth cannot be communicated to

see the divine 'light that shines withia them, for it is

your own lack of vision that makes1 all seem dark.

Kabir says the same thing:

In every abode the light doth shine : it is you

who are blind that cannot see. When by dint of

looking and looking you at length can discern it,

the bondage of death will be torn asmnder (11-33).

It is because the devotee is not in communion that

he says the goal ia far away (11-34).

Many such similarities are to be observed between

the sayings the Baiils and those of the Upper Indiaa

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APPENDICES 211

There's no worship in Mosque or Temple or

special holy day.

At every step I have my Mecca and Kasi,

sacred is every moment.

If a Baiil is asked the age of hig cult, whether

it com eg before or after this one or that, he says:

"Only the artificial religions of the world are limited

by time. Our Sahaja (simple, natural) religion is

timeless, it has neither beginning nor end, it is of all

time." The religion of the TJpanisads and Puranas,

even that of the Vedas, is according to them artificial.

In this there appears to be an element of profoundtruth.

Baiils who have a smattering of the scriptures! say

th'at in the first three Vedas, traces of this Saliaja cult

of the Batils are specially referred to,in the Vecjas under

the name Nivartiya or Nivuttiya, being described as

those who conform to no accepted doctrines, but to

whom,, having known the truth in its purity, all direc-

tions are free. Not bound by prescribed rites or

ceremonials, but, in active comfonunion with all byvirtue of their wealth of the natural, they are ever

mobile. I have, as a matter of fact, found in the

Atharva Veda many references to the Vrdtyc&s (which

may be translated as Non-conformists) in these identical

term#. I give a few examples :

The Vrdtya is ever mobile. He made even

Prajapati mobile (XV, 1, 1, 1).

The Vrdtya was active in all directions

(XV, 1,2).

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212 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

The Vrdtya went forth in all directions, and

with him went all else (XV, 1, 6).

Full of rasa (emotion), mobile and independ-

ent, the Vrdtya entered the world, and

there remained a?, a sea of flowing- rasa

(XV, 1, 7).

The Vratya went amongst men, and with him

went the leaders and the assemblies, the

braves and the armies (XV, 2, 1).

The Atharva is also full of enigmatic verses similar

to the sayings of the Baiils:

The wise one who has known the Brahman, he

alone knows the whole of language.

Ordinary) men use only a part oi it

(IX, 15, 27).

There is a truth inherent in the phenomenal

world, in ignorance of which the heart

knows not bliss. In search of this truth

do the waters ever flow (X, 7, 37).

Man is a wondrous temple. When it was made,the gods came and took shelter therein

(XI, 10, 18).

The Baiils says: In the body is the essence of the

world : in the world the essence of the cosmos. In the

Mahi Sukta of the Atharva (XII. 1) and1 also in several

other suktas (V. 1; VII. 1; VIII. 9; IX. 14; IX. 15;

etc.), we have wonderful expressions of the mystery of

creation in similar cryptic *erlms, which m,ay serve to

throw light on many of the Baiils sayings.

The Batils claim that from the eternal Sahajareligion the Vedas have but called some of its truths.

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APPENDICES 213

But they repudiate the suggestion that it is they who

are indebted for their inspiration to these scriptures;

for, as they eay, what have ignoramuses! like them to

do with scriptures? They further assert that Vasistha,

Narada and other well known Vedic seersi, all pursued

the mystic path of this Sahaja religion that permeates

the world, and has yielded some of its truths to each

and every religious sect. When, for instance, Nitya-

nanda joined the ranks of Chaitanya's followers, he

brought into Vaisnavism many of the SaJiaja truths,

for he belonged to that cult.. His son Virabhadra, was

a Baiil. The Baula freely make use of texts from the

first portion of the Chaitanya-Charitianmta, the authori-

tative Vaisnava work by Krisna-das, an initiate of

Nityananda's branch; for, say they, though his attempt

waa to compose an orthodox treatise, many Saliaja

truths crept in, such as are not to expected from a mereVaisnava.

The Vaisnavas, the wandering sects of whom have

a superficial resemblance to the Baiils, have not been

able to attain to their catholicity of apjirit, their powerof making every religion their own, and therefore5

despise them as lacking in pro'per restraint and self-

respect. The latter, <in turn, loofe down on the former

as people to be pitied. "Haci these Vaisnavas the

understanding, they would have 'known better," say the

Bauls. "Chandl-das, Vidyapati and others were good

Vaisnava poets simply because they had gli'mpsesi oi'

Sahaja ideas, but are their followers competent to

understand their message? They took the idea of Eadha

from, us, but have dragged her down to the level of

their low desires. Devoid of the realisation of the

simple, their minds, obsessed with the complexities of

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214 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

their literature, fail to do justice to the wealth' theyhave inherited. At best they make an attempt at

simplicity and naturalness in their songs and festivals,

but in their lives/, thoir temples, their religious

observances, they are unable to get free of the shackles

of their scriptures. They have made a jumble of love

and desire, the workings of the sipirit and the inclina-

tions of the senses. ,They have not the courage to

realise that Jagannatha, the Lord of the World, is

everywhere, and that His class-destroying festival is- for

ever being held. So they cannot live up to the heightof the words they use."

Having no faith in scriptures, the followers of the

Sahaja cult believe only in living religious experiences.

Truth, according* to them, has two aspects, inert and

living. Confined to itself truth has no value for man.

It becomes priceless when embodied in a living person-

ality. The conversion of the inert into living truth bythe devotee, they compare to the conversion into milk

,by the cow of its fodder, or the conversion by the tree

of dead matter into fruit. He who has this power of

making truth living, is the Guru or Master. Such

gurus they hold in special reverence, for the eternal

and all pervading truth can only be brought to man's

door by passing* through hi.s life.

The guru igi the past, the disciple the future, andthe initiation the present, according to the Baiils.

Past, present and future are thus siynthesised in the

communion of Master and disciple. The Master as well

as the disciple have likewise two aspects. The one is

spiritual (cinmaya) the other earthy or worldly

(mrimnaya). The true initiation tate place when their

spiritual aspects come into* mutual communion. The

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APPENDICES 215

mere physical proximity of their worldly aspects

produces no result. The woman devotee, Ksettia,

aays;

If for years and years you hold on, to the earthy

part (of your guru) leaving out the spirit,

You will gain neither faith, nor reverence,

nor wisdom.

In the Indian religious cults only one guru is

ordinarily presupposed. The Tantricsi acknowledge

two, who give respectively intellectual andi spiritual

initiation. But in the Saliaja view such limitation of

the number of gurus results in narrowness of realisa-

tion. Dadu indicates this in a verse of salutation:

Dadu first salutes the colourless Supreme

Person,

Next, as the means of understanding Him, he

salutes his guru as divine.

And then he transcends the bounds of saluta-

tion, by offering reverence to all devotees.

In t/he Chaitanya^Charita'mrita the salutations are

;to g^irus in the plural. The author, Krisna-das^ makes

his. initial obeisance to his >six gurus (p. 10). This

Sahajaidea finds expresdon in the Tantras:

As the bee in quest of honey flits from flower

to flower.

So do thou gather wisdom by going from guruto guru. (Kularnava, 13, 132).

The Baiil puts it thus:

By what path comest thou, Guru, the mysteryI cannot solve,

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216 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

So it passeth my understanding where to leave

iny obeisance.

According to the Baulk, initiation is a life-long

process, to be gained little by little, from all kind^ of

gurus. On the occasion of one of their festivals a

friend of mine happened to ask a Batil about his guru,to which he received this characteristic reply :

Wouldst thou make obeisance to thy guru, myheart?

He is there at every step, on each side of thy

path, for numberless are thy guru^s.

To which of them, then, wouldst thou make

obeisance, my heart?

The welcome offered to thee is thy guru, the

agony inflicted on thee is thy guru,

Every wrench at thy heart-s.tringa is thy guru.

that maketh the tears to flow.

My baffled friend tried again by asking the same

Baiil from whom he first received initiation. Thencame the song :

The day I was born I received my first

initiation,

With one-syllabled mantra I begged mymother's grace.

The tears of a mother, the milk of a mother,

my life from my mother.

And withal my mother's training I received.

Not a breath have I drawn but I gained

initiation, that's my firm conviction.

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APPENDICES 21f

The conclusion to which they come is that the guru

is within.

The guru who is the fount of wisdom resides

in thine own home.

A great mistake hast thou made by giving heed

to the teachings of all the world.

And again:

The voice from the depths tells thee that the

guru ig in the lotus of the heart.

distraught! Cease from thy turmoil,

there the darkness-killing light doth' shine.

So also Kabir :

The Supreme Self, the Guru, abideth near

to thee,;

Awake, awake, my heart. (II, 20).

Notj that the Bauls do not admit any outward guru,

but he isi a danger to be feared, they feel, asi well as a

help to be sought; for, if he imposes himself on his

disciple, he kills the latter '.a own spirit, a murder

worse than, the killing of the body.

The lamp gives light from afar, still further

away the sun.

The guru gives light without heat who sits

aloof in the truth.

So, say the Batilst, the guru should minister to his

disciple from his distance :

The bird fosters its young under its wing, the-

fish keeps its fry at itsi sade,

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218 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

But the turtle hatches its eggs in the sand from

afar, this the wise guru well knows.

The Batils also call the guru^ hlnya (lit. nothing,

emptines-s) not implying' the absence of substance, but

the spaciousness of freedom. The luminous expanse of

the sky above means more to the sprouting seed than

the material of the ground below. That &&nya is not

used in its negative meaning is clearly evident by its

'.being also applied by them to the Supreme Being.

Dadu has the same conception :

What name can be given to Him who is

Nothing?Whatever name we use is less than the Truth

(XIII. 145).

And again :

In &unya doth the Brahman, the formless, the

colourless, abide.

And Dadii has beheld, bewildered, the daz/ling

light that is there. (IV. 130).

'Sundar-.das has used the term Sunya in the sense

of the Supreme Peace in which the devotee loses

himself.

The Baiils say that emptiness of time and space

is required for a play-ground. That is why God has

preserved an emptiness in the heart of man, for the aajke

of His own play of Love. Therefore the guru who is

tunya "fosters but pesters not." So far for the mystic

theory. In practice, ai we have seen, tihe Baiilsi payhigh reverence to their gurus.

Our wise and learned ones were content with findingin the Brahman the tat (lit. that, the ultimate

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APPENDICES 219

substance). The Bduls, not being Pandits, do not

profess to understand all this to do about that-iiess,

they want a Person. So their God is the Man of the

Heart (nianer mdnm) sometimes simply the Man

(PUTUS). This Man of the Heart is ever and anon lost

in the turmoil of things. Whilst He is revealed within,

no worldly pleasures can give satisfaction. Their sole

anxiety is the finding of this Man. The Baiil sings:

Ah1

, where am, I to find him, Itie Man of myHeart?

Alas, -since I lost Him, I wander in search of

Him, Thro' lands near and far.

The agony of separation from Him cannot be

mitigated for them, by learning or philosophy :

Oh these words and words, my nijind would

none of them,

The Supreme Man it must and sihalll discover !

So long as Him I do not see, tjhese ttxists slate

not my thirst.

#

Mad am I, for lack of that Man I madly run

about,

For his sake the world I've left; for Bisha

naught else will serve.

This Bisha wast a Bhuin-mali by caste, disciple of

Bala, the Kaivarta.

This cult of the Man is only to be found in the

Vedas hid'den away in <the Pumsa-sukta (A. V. XIX. 6).

It is more freely expressed by the Upper Indian

devotees of the Middle Ages. It is all in all with the

Baiils. The God whom these illiterate outcastes seeik

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220 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

so simply and naturally in their lives, is obscured bythe accredited Religious* Leaders in philosophical

sysrtjems and terminology, in priestcraft! and ceremonial,

in institution and temples. Hence their lament:

Thy path, Lord, is hidden by mosque and

temple.

Thy call I hear, but guru and murshid stop the

way.

What gives peace to my heart, sets but the-

world ablaze,

The cult of the One dies in the conflict of tho-

rnany,

Its door closed by the locks) of Koran, Puran1

and rosary.

Even the way of renunciation is full of

tribulation, Wherefore weeps Madan in

despair.

Kabir has the following observations on this point :

You refuse the pure water that is before you,

Waiting to drink until you have dug a

reservoir !

*

The Smriti, daughter of the Vedaa, hasi corn*

to bind you in unbreakable shackles.*

The hedge that you put round the fields isi itself

exhausting their soil.

*

Those -who know all the rest have their heaven!

and hell,

*

Those who know God have neither.

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APPENDICES 221

Dadu thus extols the followers of the simple way:

They trouble not about Life and Death, they

do not care for transmigration or cycle of

existence,

They shirk not the touch of water or wind,

with Him they ever abide. (Rag Rdmltali,

pad 210).

Neither confined to the home, nor wandering

abroad,

They torture not the body, but are attuned to

the wise guru's mind. (Gurudev ahga, 74).

Not satisfied with the avatars (incarnations of God)

jmentioned in th scriptures, the Baul sings:

As we look on every creature, we find each' to

be Hia avatar,

What can you teach us of His ways? in

ever-new play He wondrously revels.

And Kabir also tells us:

All see the Eternal One, but rarely a r^al

devotee, recognises Him. (II. 52).

A friend of mine was once much impressed by the

reply of a Baul who was asked why his robe was not

/tinted with ascetic ochre :

Can the colour show! outside, unless the inside

is first tinctm"ed(P(

Can the fruit attain ripe .sweetness by the

painting of ita skin?

;Thia aversion of the Batil from outward marks of

*distin.ctiotn is also shared by the Upper Indian devotees,

.asi we have elsewhere noticed.

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222 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

The age-long controversy regarding dvaita (dual-

ism) and advaitto (monism) is readily solved bythese wayfarers on the path of Love. Love is the

simple striving, love the natural communion, so believe

the Baiils. "Ev&r two and ever one, of this the nameis Love," say the. In love, one-ness is achieved without

any losa of respective self-hood. Some of their ideas on

this point are to be found in the Chaitanya-Charita-

mrita, from, which we cull a few stray lines :

The follower of Love obeys neither nor

scripture, (p. 720).*

He who worship^ Krisna by the way of Love^

easily tastes of his sweetness, (p. 669).*

Neither wisdom nor austerity is part of Love,

(p. 718).

Love seeks to please God ; desire seek to please

oneself, (p. 101).

Not for me the cheap love dependent on riches,

(p. 71).

He who glorifies Me and despises himself, Mehe captures not with such love. (p. 71).

#

I give the name of love to that which has

the two-fold aspect :

The love accompanying the right of possession,

the love free of all ties. (p. 76).

The last idea occurs thus in Dadu:

The body is for the world : the dweller within

it for God. (XVIII. 27).

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APPENDICES 223

The Bauls also have their own ideas in regard to

the love of man for woman. Being asked whether he

had experienced such love, a Baiil replied: "I once

had a wife, my son, and for ten years or more my body

was by her side. Then she departed frota this world.

It was ten or more years after tha)t when, suddenly,

for a moment, I knew her for, the first time. And at

her loving touch I became as gold."

The Chaitanya-Charitamrita, has the verse :

In mutual attraction they came together.

leaving all else,

But their union may or may not be, save bythe grace of God1

, (p. 72).

Naturally the Bauls. do not look upon the love of

woman as* something to fighti shy of, but rather as, the

greatest of helps to spiritual realisation. Space compels,me to restrict myself to a bare outline of their doctrines

in thisi connection.

They compare woman to a flame, of which the heat

is for the use of the household itfeelf, but the light

shines1 far and wide. The first is called* her vigrafaa

(formal) aspect and the latter her agraltia (ideal) aspect.

In the former she belongs to husband and home, in the

latter she is capable of energising all and sundry. Hewho deals with her exclusively in the first aspect,*

insults her womanhood in its fulness. The internal

enemies that obstruct the complete vision of her are

man's lusit, distraction and egotism.

The idea of ParaMyd (the womaji not belonging to

oneself) has been woeful misunderstood. The Baiils

lodk upon the knowledge of self as a door to divine

realisation or liberation. But one's1 self cannot be

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224 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

truly known unless it becomes manifest through the

love of another. Even God the Omniscient tnowa not

Hig own bliss, and so seeks to discover it through the

love of His creatures (symbolised by Radha ill the

Vaisnava Scriptures). So is the love of a woman, who

is under no social compulsion, appreciated by the

Sahajia* as a means of man's self-knowledge and libera-

tion. The idea has unfortunately been degraded by

being understood in some quarters as a plea for pro-

miscuous love between the sexes.

Then come the terms eka-rasa (the emotion that

unites) and sama-rasa (the harmony ot emotions).

.Space is overcome by the motion of the body; time bythe course of life. And all gulfs can be bridged by the

spiritual process of sama-rasa. If Siva and Sakti, wis-

*donx and devotion, remain apart, they cannot function

to any purpose. "When Siva and Sakti are united,

then results sama-rasa."

Kabir says:

When Love and Eenunciation flow together, like

the Ganges and Jamuna,That alone is the sacred bathing place which can

give the boon of praydga* (supreme union).

(II. 02).

.Says the Bdul :

While Siva and Sakti remain apart

The right and left streams (of reason and of feeling)

remain apart likewise.

.Then reason, is useless, all ig emptiness, and

liberation hopeless.

*The pilgrimage (lit. bathing place) at the confluence of the

"Ganges and the Jumna is called Praydga.

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APPENDICES 225

Listen, Madha, says Jaga,

Penances and formulas, fasting- and pilgrimage,

reading and learning all are then futile.

If thou wouldst gain the supreme end, get the

different streams to mingle.

Sawut-rasa, with its equivalent eka-rasa, is there-

fore, obviously another name for love. It i& the

)utflowing joy of love that alone can serve to synthesise

the several one-sided endeavours of man. "It is only

by this xuliaja (simple) way," says Sundar-das, "that

man's life can be attuned to the Divine song." An3 as

we have already shown, this sahaja way of love is the

3ne that has been followed and advised by all the Indian

mystics.

Trikula-yoya (harmony between past, present andPutin e) is another important doctrine of this cult.

Life itself is the regulation of the activity of the

present in accordance with both past, and future. Kablr

mce admonished an irreverent learned person thus;

"Your life is an expensive bridge oi' marble, but it has

failed to touch both banks/'

the implication ieing that

he was sacrificing the future to the present.

You have devoured the three "times" (past, present

and future) all at one time

To what end, miserable one, have you allowed

yourself to come to this pa>s?

You have bartered away the golden key, how will

you now enter the treasure-house?

How gain your inmost self?

15

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226 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

O wretched one, you bring your fate on yourself !

Great opportunities had you, mry heart,

But you let them slip with overmuch neglect.

Yours, is now the wondrous store-house,

The folly of allowing the material interests of

present to stunt the future growth of the spiritual lite

becomes apparent when it is too late, when those in-

terests. have flagged with the waning physical desires,

but the wasted spiritual powers can no longer be

recovered.

The same need, exists for the reconcilement of the

antagonism between the outer call of the material world

and the inner call of the spiritual world, as for

the realisation of the mutual love of the individual and

Supreme self. It is a case for the application of ther

same sama-rasa. The God who is Love, say the Baul^can alone serve to turn the currents" of the within and

the without in one and, the same direction.

Kabir says:

If we say He is only within, then the whole

Universe is slialmed. If we say He is only without,

then that is false. He whose feet rest alike on the

sentient and on the inert, fills the gap between tha

innej; and the outer worlds. (I. 104).

The inter-relations of man's body and the Universe

have to be realised by spiritual endeavour. Such

endeavour is called Kdya-Sddhana (Realisation through!

the body). There are numberless instances in the poemsof Dadu where the body has been eulogised asi the seat

of the Almighty, the pilgrimage of pilgrimages, the

sacred place of worship, of realisation, and of final

Page 251: Medieval Mysticism

APPENDICES 227

liberation. One of the recognised methods of attaining

this realisation, is the use of the rhythm of breathing as

a rosary for meditation, in place of the usual beads.

Thig process of inhaling and exhaling the outer atmos-

phere, is called ajapd-japa as distinguished from japa(the telling of beads). The anthropomorphic narrowingof the Infinite Spirit of the Universe by inviting Himinto the confines of the body has. however, to be guarded

against. The endeavour should rather consist in the

expansion of one's own self into the universe by meansof the cultivation of sa ma-ram.

Another process in this Kdyd-sddhana of the Baiils

is known as Urdha-srota (the elevation of the current).

Watersi flow downwards according- to the ordinary

physical law. But with the advent of Life the process

is reversed. When the living seed sprouts the juices are

drawn, upwards, and on the elevation, that such flow can

attain depends the height of the tree. It is the same in

the life of man. His desires ordinarily flow downward

towards animality. The endeavour of the expanding

spirit i.a to turn their current upwards towards the light.

The currents of jiva (animal life) must be converted into

the current of Siva (God life). The former centre round

the ego, they must be raised by the force of love.

Says Dadu's daughter, Nani-bai :

How is the divine to conquer the carnal,

The downward current to bo upwards! turned?

As when the wick is lighted the oil doth upwards flow,

.so simply is destroyed' the thirst of the body.

The Yoga-vasistha tells us :

TJncleansed desires bind to the world!, purified

desires give liberation (I. 3. 11.).

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228 MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM

References to this reversal of current are also to be

found in the Atharva Veda (X, 2, 9; 2, 34). This rever-

sal is otherwise considered by Indian devotees as the

conversion of the sthula (gross) into the suksma (fine).

The Baiil sings:

L<f>ve is my golden touch, it turns desire into

service;

Earth seeks to become Heaven, man to become God.

Another aspect of the idea of reversal has been put

thus by Rabindranath in his Broken Ties :

If I keep going in the same direction alongwhich He comes to me, then I shall be going further

and further away from Him. If I proceed in the

opposite direction, then only can we meet. He loves

form, so He is< continually descending towards form.

iWe cannot live by form alone, so we must ascend

towards His formlessness. He is free, so hia play is

within bond. We are bound, so we find our joy in

freedom. All our sorrow is, because we cannot

.understand this. He who sings, proceeds from; his

joy to the tune; he who hears, frota, the tune to joy.

One comes from freedom into bondage, the other

goes from bondage into freedottn,; only thus can

they have their communion. He sings and we hear.

He ties the bonds as He sings to us, we untie them

as we listen to Him.

This idea also occurs in our devotees^ of the Middler

Ages.

The Toga of the Bauls is essentially different fromthat of the Tantrics w^ho are mainly concerned with the

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MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM 241

Suhrawardi sect 14Sukhananda 72, 85Sukhram-das 135Sumerdev 78'

Sundar-das 190Sundarmurti Svann 168

Supralhedagama 62

Surasari-ji 86Suratgopal 93Sur-das 25

Surkhposh, Saiyad Jalaluddin19

Sursurananda 72, 86Bursvam! 161Suthra-das Kavastha 152Suthra Shah 138Svami-Narayani sect 33, 53,

169Svayamb'huva Agama 62

Sylhet 170

Tagore Rabindranath 228Tahir-al Makki 39

Taj 32

Takki, Shaikh 91Taksari 108Tantras 37, 85, 101, 168Tantric teachings 36, f>3

Tatti sect 54Tattva 98Tauhid-i-Ilahl 22

Teg Bahadur 104

Tejananda 108Ten-kalai 47Tiruijavukkarasn Svami 168Tiru

'

Pughal 169Tiru Vaymoli 46, 47

Trikamdas 117Trilochan 105Tukaram 55Tulsi-das 25, 59. 60, 61, 128Tulsl Sahib Hathrasi 160 f.

Turkish inscription 102

TTcch 20Uda, Udasi Kabir sect 116TTdairSm 153TTjjain 133Umapati SivScharya 63TTmreth 59Upanisads 2, 4, 48Uttaradhi sect 112Uvata 42

Va^Ja-kalai 48Vaisnav-das 77Vaisnavism 33, 48, 53, 54,136

Vallabhacharya 33, 49, 32,65

Vallabha-das 78Vallabha sect 33, 51, 53, 147Varuna 4

Vasisiha 4Vedas 115Vedanta 48Vedantade^ika 47Vedanta texts 22Vedic customs 41, 47Vedic mantras 81Vedic ritualism 2

Vidyapati 50Viharini-das 54Vljalc 92

Vijfiane^vara 42

Vinaymdllkd 150Virachar 37Vira Saiv&gama 52Virbhadra 54Vir Singha, Raja 92Visnu 5, 75Visnuchitta 46Visnusvaml 56VisVanath Singh 92Vi$vasara-tantra 44

Vithangal 170Vitthal 152Vitthalvipul 54

Vrajayasi-das 52Vraivilds 52 *

Vratyas 68Vrindavan 51, 53, 54Vrisnis 45Vohar-das 56

Wahabis 40Wali Allah 155Wazind Khan 111

Woodroffe, J. G. 168

Yamunacharya 47

Yoga system 36. 45Yocjavdsistha 227

Yogi sect '58 70, 129, 139

Zend Ivesta 23

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Printed by J. C. Sarkhel at the Calcutta Oriental Press,

9, Panchanan Ghose Lane, Calcutta.

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